Primitive Christianity And Its Corruptions Vol II

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PEIMTHVE CHRISTIANITY

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS.

VOL. II.

DEPflRTMENT OF PERSONRL RIGHTEOUSNESS.

A SERIES OF DISCOURSES

DELIVERED IN HOPEDALE, MASS.,
A D. 1870-71,

BY ADIN jiALLOU.

EDITED BY WILLIAM S. HEYWOOD.

"Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth
why do ye not believe me ? " John viii* 46.

" Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven." Matt. v. 30

" Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I
say ? " Luke vi 46.

LOWELL, MASS.:

THOMPSON & HILL, PRINTERS. THE Vox POPULI PRESS.
1899

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE I.
Statement of the subject ... .... 1

DISCOURSE II.
Primitive Christian Piety : Part i 14

DISCOURSE III.
Primitive Christian Piety : Part 2 27

DISCOURSE IV.

Corruptions of Primitive Christian Piety: Part i. In rela-
tion to Worship ... 43

DISCOURSE V.

Corruptions of Primitive Christian Piety : Part 2. In rela-
tion to Rites and Ceremonies 57

DISCOURSE VI.

Corruptions of Primitive Christian Piety : Part 3. In rela-
tion to its Divorce from Morality 72

DISCOURSE VII.
Primitive Christian Morality 87

CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE VIII
On the Fundamental Vntue of Humility 101

DISCOURSE IX
On Self-Demal as a Fundamental Vntue . . 114

DISCOURSE X.
On the Primitive Christian Virtue of Justice . . . 120

DISCOURSE XI
On the Fundamental Vntue of Truthfulness , 143

DISCOURSE XII
On the Supreme Virtue of Peifect Love 150

DISCOURSE XIII
On the Primitive Christian Doctrine of Non-Resistance 174

DISCOURSE XIV.
Christian Moialityand Civil Government. . . . 18!)

DISCOURSE XV
On the Pnmitive Chiistian Virtue of Peisonal Purity 204

DISCOURSE XVI
On the Primitive Chnstian Doctrine concerning Oath-taking . 21$)

DISCOURSE XVII.
On the Primitive Christian Doctrine concerning Property 2#4

CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE XVIII.
On the Primitive Christian Doctrine concerning Mental Cult-

248

DISCOURSE XIX

On the Primitive Christian Doctrine respecting the use of

Talents, etc. . ' . 2G4

DISCOURSE XX.
Primitive Christian Morality vs Worldly Morality . . 279

DISCOURSE XXI.
Incipient Corruptions of Primitive Christian Morality . . 294

DISCOURSE XXII.
Increasing Corruptions of Primitive Christianity . . .310

DISCOURSE XXIII.
Deepening Corruptions of Primitive Christianity . . . 326

DISCOURSE XXIV.

The Morality of Christendom during the tenth, eleventh,

twelfth, and thirteenth Centuries 342

DISCOURSE XXV

The Moral Condition o Christendom during the fourteenth,

fifteenth, and sixteenth Centuries 359

DISCOURSE XXVI.

The Average Morality of Christendom in the seventeenth

and eighteenth Centuries 375

CONTENTS.

DISCOURSE XXVII

The Prevailing Morality of Christendom in the nineteenth

Century . . . 302

DISCOURSE XXVIII
General Summary and Applicatory Reflections ; Conclusion , 400

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY AND ITS
CORRUPTIONS.

DEPARTMENT OF PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS.

DISCOURSE I

STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT

" I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matt, v 20

In the series of discourses composing the first
volume of my projected work on PRIMITIVE CHRIS-
TIANITY AND ITS CORRUPTIONS, I endeavored to set
forth and illustrate the pure Theology of the Gospel
of Christ, and to expose the principal features of it
which, as time went on, were seriously misinterpreted,
obscured, and perverted. In that upon the same
general subject which appears on the pages of the
present volume, I propose to render a similar service
in behalf of the distinctive Personal Righteousness
taught and exemplified by the Founder of our holy
religion and his early Apostles. Primitive Christian-
ity embodies an exceptional and distinctive type of
personal righteousness, as it has an exceptional and

2 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

distinctive theological system declaratively inculcated
or implied in its teachings and ministrations Both
are transcendently excellent, and are in strictest har-
mony with each other. There is no logical or moral
discord m the whole Christian superstructure, as
reared by its Master-builder, from foundation stone
to the loftiest summit of its dome. Its theology is
perfect, as I have before shown, in all its essentials ,
its personal righteousness is correspondingly without
defect or cause of reprehension.

What then is the personal righteousness of Primi-
tive Christianity ? It is that which is clearly and
unqualifiedly taught, exemplified, and enjoined by
Christ and his Apostles, as declared and promul-
gated in the Scriptures of the New Testament. There
is no other authentic source of historical information
respecting this subject. Before proceeding to the
consideration of its merits and requirements, how-
ever, we will give a little attention to the matter of
definition and explanation. Let us understand what
we are trying to discuss.

What then do we mean precisely by the expression,
personal righteousness ? Righteousness is a term
derived from the primary word right, which is the
verbal equivalent of straight or direct, as by line or
rule, and, with its corresponding adjective, is used
chiefly in religious speech and literature. When a
person, people, law, principle, or course of conduct is
called righteous, it is to be understood that the same
is proper, allowable, or commendatory, because it is
in accoid with some acknowledged standard of moral
worth. Righteousness denotes either j ustifiable action

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 3

or an incorrupt state of mind and heart. It signifies,
when applied to persons, doing right and being right,
according to the divine law of rectitude and honor.
It is sometimes used in a lower, comparative sense ;
but I give it its higher, its absolute moral and relig-
ious meaning. The modifying term, personal, restricts
the quality represented by the word righteousness to
individuals to responsible beings, whose action or
inward state is determined and established by con-
scious choice. Personal righteousness is not predi-
cated of minerals, vegetables, animals, or unintelligent
human beings, or of masses of people governed by
arbitrary compulsion alone, even though they be or
do what is in itself just and lawful for the time being.
It is predicated only of self conscious, free moral
agents, who, on the grounds of eternal justice, are
accountable for what they do and for what they are.
Hence we speak in this absolute and authoritative
sense of the personal righteousness of God, of Christ,
or of any man. The expression always implies
responsible moral agency, voluntary action or condi-
tion of mind, and some rule, standard, or law of
rectitude which is the test of moral quality and
desert. Therefore, perfect personal righteousness
must be the characteristic of a responsible being
whose motive, thought, and conduct are, of his own
consent and choice, conformed to a perfect law or
standard, inhering in the nature of things or in the
counsels and ordinations of an all-wise, all-holy, all-
loving Creator and Governor of the world and all
things therein. Such is God's personal righteous-
ness ; such is Christ's personal righteousness ; and

4 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

such the ultimate and immaculate personal righteous-
ness required of regenerate humanity a righteous-
ness after which every member of that humanity is
to aspire and into the realization of which every such
member is in duty bound, as far as possible, to come.
Anything short of this would leave us and our entire
race more or less in bondage to sin and misery, and
so far unsaved.

And now the main question recurs: What is the
unadulterated, distinctive personal righteousness of
pure Primitive Christianity ? What ought we to ex-
pect it to be in the divine order of the world as por-
trayed in the preceding volume of this work ? We,
therein, were made to see, theologically, that God is
the all-perfect universal Father, that in His eternal
purpose the destiny of mankind, without exception, is
perfection and bliss ; and that Jesus Christ is an all-
sufficient mediator, commissioned to reconcile the
human race to God, so that He shall finally be all in
all." We saw, too, that the great Creator caused man-
kind to come into existence on a low plane of intellect-
ual and moral being, with their animal nature dominant
over their spiritual , that consequently they are vari-
ously subject to sin and thereby brought into greater
or less condemnation ; and that adequate means and
agencies were provided in the divine economy for
rendering them ultimately holy and Christ-like in
spirit, character, and conduct, through a gradual
process of enlightenment, regeneration, and growth
in the things of the divine life. This consummation,
when reached, must present every one perfect in
righteousness; that is, voluntarily submissive and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 5

obedient to the requirements of the divine law of
love to God and man. So long as one soul remains
unregenerate and disobedient, in overt act or in
secret desire, the eternal purpose of the infinite
Author of all things will not be fulfilled. The media-
torial and saving work of Christ is to reach and
rescue all souls from the power of temptation and
sin ; to make every human being holy from the love
of holiness ; to mold every such being after the pat-
tern of his own image, into the likeness of God.
This achievement is necessarily of grace, through
faith, repentance, and salutary discipline, for the
reason that man neither originated nor deserved it
by his own primal wisdom or worthiness In its very
nature such an achievement is deliverance from the
love of sin into the love of righteousness, and would
be of no avail unless it should bring those subject to
it ultimately all mankind into a state of mind
and heart i"n which their supreme delight, like that of
Christ, should be to know and do the will of the heav-
enly Father in all things. In former expositions we
have renounced as errors and corruptions all notions
of Christ's saving work which in any wise imply that
the saved are not rendered personally righteous in
will, in purpose, and in conduct. Complete salva-
tion produces as its legitimate fruit willing obedience
to the divine requirements from the spirit of obedi-
ence within. No one can have experienced a perfect
salvation, according to the Christian ideal, until he
has become unreservedly consecrated to truth and
duty of his own choice and as a matter of principle.
So long as he transgresses the laws of his being,

6 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

which are the conditions of his happiness, whether
by omission or commission, in thought or word or
deed, he remains so far unsaved, is so far under
condemnation; must so far suffer the miseries con-
sequent upon his shortcoming or wrong-doing.

In this view of the case, we can clearly understand
why Primitive Christianity requires perfect personal
righteousness as indispensible to perfect happiness.
It certainly does require this, as the final issue of
the obligation which it lays upon the human soul.
Not, however, as a condition upon which God mani-
fests His love and grace to the children of men ; for
His love and grace are original, spontaneous, and
unchangeable in Him, whatever be their moral state
or deserving. Nor is it on the ground that God will
accept no righteousness in any of us unless it be a
perfect righteousness; for He accepts and rejoices in
the humblest efforts of His frail and imperfect chil-
dren to honor and serve Him ; He approves and
rewards the least and poorest expressions of right-
eousness in any and every human being, according to
its real worth, as determined by the sincerity and
sense of accountability which prompt it. The least
good any fallible mortal may do is owned and com-
mended of Him who judges impartially every subject
of His moral government, as the least evil of the
usually devout and upright receives His just con-
demnation and the punishment which is its rightful
due. Nor is perfect personal righteousness demanded
because God or Christ or the Apostles or any wise
being in heaven or on earth expected its immediate
attainment and exemplification by men ; for divine wis-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 7

dom knew from all eternity that this could be accom-
plished only after long and earnest struggle, severe
moral discipline, and persevering progress in well-
doing. But it is enjoined and insisted upon as an
indispensable finality, and as an essential requisite to
the ultimate universal harmony and bliss. We can
never experience perfect joy unalloyed felicity, as
individuals or as a race, till we are perfectly right-
eous The heaven or hell we may ever inhabit must
be according to our possession or destitution of per-
sonal righteousness. This is the law of our being,
the ordinance of God, and none can escape it. Our
heavenly Father asks, indeed, our best performance
of duty, but gives due credit for what we render, and
causes us to take the legitimate consequences of our
action, be it good or ill. We may choose to go to
a given extent in acknowledging the claims and
in practising the principles of righteousness, but no
further Very well. The great Judge of all the
earth is not disappointed, nor is He thwarted in His
purpose concerning us ; nor is He out of patience
with us, nor hopeless and disheartened in regard to
our final destiny. But He sees to it that we reap as
we sow. When we choose how much righteousness
we will accept and exemplify and how much unright-
eousness, let us at the same time remember and con-
sider that we also, by the same act, decide how happy
or miserable we must be as the consequence of such
choice, and as our thoughts and acts yield their
appropriate and inevitable harvest of good or ill, of
joy or sorrow, to the soul. If not in time, then in
eternity, we receive an equitable recompense for the

8 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

lives we lead and the characters we form and illus-
trate, whether it be of justification unto joy unspeak-
able and full of glory, or of condemnation into merited
self-reproach and wretchedness. These are the plain
teachings of Primitive Christianity ; as they are of
enlightened reason and human experience in all ages
of the world's history.

And yet there is an almost universal disposition m
Christendom to ignore or set at nought these teach-
ings, at least, in their absolute and comprehensive
form, both within and without the pale of the nomi-
nal Church a widely-prevailing habit of lowering
Christ's standard of personal righteousness in order
to accommodate it to what is deemed possible, neces-
sary, practicable, or expedient, under existing condi-
tions and circumstances of human life on the earth.
This is sometimes done by open denial of their truth-
fulness and authority, but more frequently by explain-
ing away whatever in the Master's precepts and
example seems too radical, stringent, or extreme for
convenient practice ; too high and holy to be avail-
able at the present stage of human development.
Some do this on the naked plea that the Gospel
requirements are at present utterly impracticable
if not impossible, though admitting that they are
right and true in the abstract, and destined to become
the supreme rules of thought and conduct at some
future period, in this world or the next, Others do
it on the theological ground that we must not exalt
works above grace in the divine economy of redemp-
tion, or infringe upon the doctrine of salvation by the
merits of Christ by magnifying the importance of ordi-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 9

nary human duty of what are termed good works.
Still others rely on exegesis and philology, or on the
hypothesis of harmonizing New Testament ethics
with those of the Old Testament, and in this way
reducing the real significance of Christ's words to
the low level of their worldly or carnal heart's
desire.

But none of these pleas or excuses are admissible.
We must be careful to ascertain the essential mean-
ing of Jesus and his Apostles in all their recorded
sayings, and to give these sayings a just construction.
Having done this, we must be equally careful not to
strain them in any direction from the line of their
true purpose and intent. We must take them with
all possible sincerity, in spirit and in substance as
they are as they came from the thought of their
authors, not as our convenience, pleasure, prejudices,
or wishes would have them to be. One of two things
is certain ; either the personal righteousness enjoined
by Christ and the early promulgators of his Gospel
is higher, nobler, more perfect than that of Judaism
or of any other known religion of the world, or it is
of no distinctive, vital importance whatever, as the
great power of moral and spiritual redemption among
men. When one extols Christian piety and morality
as pre-eminently excellent and glorious, yet reduces
the Christian standard of duty to God and man to
the same level with that of the Scribes and Pharisees,
or with those of the Brahmins, Budhists, Mohamme-
dans, Stoics, and worldly philosophers, he had better
drop from his ethical vocabulary the differentiating
term, Christian ; for he has robbed it of its essential

10 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

meaning. It has become to him a mere catchword ;
sound, and nothing more.

But it is my province and present task to show
that the personal righteousness of Primitive Chris-
tianity is sni generis, peculiarly and radically distinct-
ive; transcendently profound and of unrivalled
excellence ; superior to that of any other religion or
philosophy which has ever arrested the attention or
received the approval and reverence of the human
race. In doing this, I shall adopt the familiar method
of considering personal righteousness under two
heads, to wit : Piety and Morality, and treat each
of these branches of the main subject, respectively,
by itself, and with all needful detail.

Piety, as I understand it, includes all duties relat-
ing especially or mainly to God and divine things ;
morality, all duties relating especially or mainly to
fellow-human beings and correspondingly created
things. But whatever distinctions of the nature
indicated are made for purposes of illustration and
as an aid to the understanding, it is to be remem-
bered that all the duties pertaining to personal right-
eousness, whether of piety or of morality, are one
in their essential quality and belong to the same
inseparable whole. They all have the same divine
origin ; they rest upon the same impregnable founda-
tions ; they are animated by the same vital spirit ;
and they all tend to the promotion and achievement
of the same grand object or consummation. They
are designed and calculated to secure and make for-
ever enduring the highest welfare and happiness of
individuals, families, communities, townships, states.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 11

and nations, aye, of the whole world of humanity ;
and, in their widest reach and dominion, of the entire
universe of souls Every morally right volition,
desire, feeling, word, deed, or course of action, agrees
with and tends to advance the greatest possible good
of every sentient creature in the whole vast realm of
existence. Nothing can be absolutely and everlast-
ingly right which does not contemplate and regard
this as its great crowning end and aim. All human
duties originate in God, the infinite power, wisdom,
goodness, the great uncreated One, "of whom,
through whom, and to whom are all things ; and to
whom be glory forever." As a sure and impregnable
foundation, they rest upon, as 'they grow out of, the
everlasting divine law and upon the immutable prin-
ciples of the moral world, which show us that the
universe is one and indivisible ; that all beings and
things belong to and form a part of the same com-
plete whole; that they have a common origin, a
common welfare, and a common purpose ; and, conse-
quently, that the highest good of each is the highest
good of all and promotes the universal happiness;
while what harms one harms all beside and thrills
with a pang of distress and woe the whole boundless
hierarchy of sentient being. As a logical and moral
correlative of this, the vital animating spirit which
should pervade all the duties of life must be love;
that love which " worketh no ill " to any but seeketh
the good of all ; which "suffereth long and is kind ;"
which " envieth not," " vaunteth not itself," " seeketh
not her own/' " thinketh no evil ; " and which *' never
faileth."

12 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Thus \ve find that in the wonderful constitution of
the world and universe there is at the head of all
beings and things, ruling over all and holding in His
sure hand the destiny of all, the universal Father,
loving all, caring for all, seeking the welfare and hap-
piness of all ; who alone is wise and far-seeing enough
to perceive and to require what is necessary to the
good and happiness of each individual soul and of
the entire commonwealth of souls in this and in all
possible worlds. Under Him, as the great mediato-
rial Teacher and the most authoritative Revealer of
the Father's will and requirement, His is well-beloved
Son, Jesus, who is called the Christ, resting all
absolute personal righteousness upon and summing
up all human duty in the two fundamental command-
ments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself/'

Thus our theme opens before us as it were a vision
of surpassing moral grandeur and sublimity. One
supreme and all-perfect God, the universal Father,
to be worshiped and adored ; one vast family of
moral and spiritual beings to be loved, benefited, and
blest ; one universal good to be sought and pro-
moted ; and one unspotted personal righteousness, as
related to the Father and the great brotherhood, to
be cherished and exemplified.

* k See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow f
Which \vho but feels can taste, but thinks can know;
Yet poor with fortune, and \\ith learning blind,
The bad must miss , the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 13

But looks through nature up to nature's God :
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design.
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine ;
Sees that no being any bliss can know.
But touches some above, and some below :
Learns from the union of the rising whole
The first, last purpose of the human soul .
And knows where faith, law, morals all began.
All end, in love of God and love of man."'

" Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine.
Is this too little for thy boundless heart?
Extend it : let thine enemies have part ;
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life and sense.
In one close system of benevolence;
Happier as kinder, in whatever degree.
And height of bliss but height of chanty.
God loves from whole to parts ; but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves this virtuous mind to wake.
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake:
The center moved, a circle straight succeeds.
Another still, and still another spreads ;
Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace,
His country next, and next all human race ;
Wide and more wide th' overflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind :
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest.
And Heaven beholds its image in his breast.*'

Pope.

DISCOURSE II.

PRIMITIVE CHBISTIAX PIETY: PART I.

4 The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers
ill worship the Father in Spirit and in truth , for the Father
keth such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and they that
rship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." John iv.

24

All religions proclaim a God. All religions enjoin
;ine worship ; that is, acts and exercises of devo-
>n and praise. All religions require piety of their
nfessors ; in other words, they declare obligations
God to be met, and duties to be discharged toward
im. The Primitive Christian religion is like others
these respects. It also enjoins and requires many
the same obligations and duties prescribed by
her religions, especially that of Moses and the
wish prophets. It gives no countenance or sup-
rt to any form of Atheism, Pantheism, Agnosti-
;m, or irreligious skepticism and indifference. It
es not resolve the Diety into an impersonal, unin-
ligent, infinite abstraction ; nor represent Him as
sre force, without conscious will or purpose in His
tivities ; nor regard Him as blind, passionless law,
th no interest in, thoughtfulness for, or love of,
2 beings and things which come into existence and

5 preserved through His agency and care. It does

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 15

not teach the in utility of forms of worship, of prayer,
and exercises of devotion ; nor make the religious
impulses and aspirations, native to the soul of man,
aimless and meaningless in respect to the Eternal
One. Its God is a real, living being the uncreated,
omnipresent, omnipotent, all-wise, all-loving Father
Spirit. The manifestations of its piety are definite,
positive, unmistakable. But that piety has cer-
tain peculiarities certain transcendent excellences,
which distinguish it from that of any and all other
religions, and which make it superior to that of any
and all others ; not as to its original essence and ele-
mentary basis in human nature, but as to its spirit
and modes of practical expression in the characters
and lives of men and in the religious institutions of
the world. It seems to me to include all that is good
in the piety of other religions, to exclude all that is
evil or mischievous in them ; also to correct the
errors they embody and supply their deficiences ; in
short, to be a perfect piety. What then are its dis-
tinguishing peculiarities and excellences ? I answer,
i. It is a perfectly rational piety. It is in happy
accord with the perfect theology already considered
and approved, and with the impartial and incontro-
vertible conclusions of an enlightened understanding.
It has in it nothing of meaningless formality, super-
stition, or fanaticism. The profoundest impulses of
the religious sentiment and the freest decisions of
the unbiased judgment blend harmoniously in its
normal manifestations. The God and Father whom
it recognizes and adores is faultlessly worthy of the
love, worship, and devotion it cheerfully and spon-

16 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

taneously renders to Him, while the motive, spirit,
use, and method of every duty it embodies, exert a
most purifying and elevating effect upon the hearts
and lives of men.

2. The primitive Christian piety is characterized
by unaffected sincerity, simplicity, and spirituality.
It acts from pure love, reverence, and conscientious-
ness towards God, and discharges its various duties
to Him, not to be seen and honored of men, not with
worldly pomp and display, not with hypocritical or
merely formal sanctimoniousness , but always in
spirit and in truth, independently of time, place >
circumstance, or artificial accompaniment.

3, It is a thoroughly radical, comprehensive, and
uncompromising piety. It is not superficial and
time-serving, assumed for occasions and designed to
hide unseemliness and guilt ; but it goes down to
the very roots of human nature to the center of
motive, thought, purpose, and action, to make them
pure and irreproachable. It extends its divinely
authorized sway over all human affections, wills,
reasoning faculties, and over all the conscious,
voluntary exercise of those endowments, to hold
them steadfast to high aims and subservient to
God's holy will. It allows no rival to the divine
Ruler of the world in any department of human
responsibility. He is supreme in all things. No man
can serve two masters. Such is the decree of primi-
tive Christian piety, and so sweeping and imperative
is the obligation it lays upon the souls of men.

4. It is a purely unselfish piety on God's part
is never required for His sake, as though He needed

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 17

anything ; never as profiting Him at man's expense ,
but always as necessary to the welfare of man ;
never as an end in itself, but as means to a grand
moral end the highest individual, social, and
universal good.

5 It is a perfectly philanthropic, humane, benefi-
cent, and Christ-like piety It requires man so to
exercise himself in all its duties that he may become
thereby, in spirit, in character, and in conduct, like
his God, like his Savior, and like the angels in
heaven. It teaches that one cannot love God and
hate, despise, injure, or neglect his fellow-men; that
as he treats them he will be judged to have treated
his and their heavenly Father; and that all the
forms and ceremonies of worship, faith, or devotion
in which he may engage, are to be regarded as
solemn mockery if he does not love and seek to
bless those about him and all mankind; if he obey
not the second great commandment as well as the
first.

That I have not stated these distinctive peculiari-
ties of Primitive Christianity too strongly is evident
from the recorded sayings and examples of Christ
and his Apostles. Let us examine a few of these
and see if I am correct ; beginning with the remark-
able conversation between Jesus and the woman of
Samaria as given in the fourth chapter of John's
Gospel. Our text is an essential part of it. The
question of the proper place of worship was intro-
duced by the latter. " Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain," (Gerizim) she remarked, "and ye say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to

13 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

worship"; the implication being that it must be ren-
dered in some consecrated locality, in some temple
reared for such service But the divine Teacher
replies, Not so, not exclusively or necessarily here or
there, God is not a bodily presence, localized for the
adoration of His creatures in some sacred mount or
sanctuary Neither is He a despotic, deific sovereign,
exacting burdensome sacrifices of his subjects
"God is a Spirit," everywhere present, and the all-
loving Father of Spirits. "The hour cometh and
now is when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh
such to worship him/' Wherever thou art, O man,
there God is above, around, within thee thy
Father and thy Friend. Be honest and truthful with
thyself, desiring to see thyself and all things only in
the light of His countenance; then will thy Father
make thee conscious of His presence wherever thou
art, and there thou mayest worship Him acceptably.

Paul's testimony is to the same effect. In his
bold, impressive discourse on Mars Hill, as reported
in the seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts, he
said : " God that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is
worshiped with men's hands as though he needed
anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath,
and all things; and hath made of one blood all
nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitation; that they should
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 19

and find him, though he is not far from any one of
us; for in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain of your own poets have said,
For we are also his offspring." Ac/sxvii. 24-28.
Such inspiring and uplifting doctrine is worthy to be
inscribed in letters of sunlight on the face of the
skies.

But hear Jesus again : " When thou prayest, thou
shalt not be as the hypocrites are ; for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners
of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily,
I say unto you they have their reward : But thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is
in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain
repetition as the heathen do, for they think they
shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye
therefore like unto them ; for your Father knoweth
what things ye have need of before ye ask him."
Matt, vi . 5-8. The real spirit and meaning of this
passage are to the effect that we are not to fool-
ishly think we can give information to God or move
Him by sounding words, a multitude of phrases, and
empty repetitions. He knows all things and is
always disposed to bless His earthly children. The
use of prayer is not to instruct Him, not to change
His disposition or His purpose, nor to induce Him to
do what otherwise would be left undone, but to put
one's self into accord with His holy will and into
communion with His spirit, that He may be enabled
to receive, appreciate, enjoy, and magnify His divine

20 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

goodness and become the agency or medium for com-
municating that goodness to others and for making
it triumphant on earth as it in heaven. Following
this instruction is that model form of adoration and
petition commonly called The Lord's Prayer, which
though brief, is most comprehensive and significant ;
so much so as to receive the reverent admiration of
enlightened Christians in all lands and times, and
of many devout souls beside.

In the same connection Jesus also said, "More-
over, when ye fast, (a mode of worship in his day }
be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance ; for
they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto
men to fast Verily, I say unto you, They have
their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not
unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in
secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly." Matt, vi . 16-18 Nothing in
the various observances and exercises of devotion is
more justly reprehensible in the estimate of rational,
truth-loving minds, or more odious to pure and spirit-
ually-quickened hearts, than sanctimonious display,
artificial devices, unnatural tones, cant phrases, mean-
ingless genuflections, and the whole long-drawn-out
routine of hollow, illusory solemnities. Ignorant and
superstitious mortals may be deluded and even awe-
stricken by such exhibitions, but not intelligent and
truly devout men and women. To such they are
an offense, as they are to God. Jesus was pre-
eminently reverent and prayerful ; but his praying
and reverential formalities were observed for the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 21

most part in secret in the solitude of his closet or
of his own heart, or in some mountain retreat when
he was alone with his Maker ; in strict conformity to
his preceptive teachings. In public he avoided all
fictitious religious appearances, all sanctimonious
airs, and was a living illustration of simple, unaf-
fected, earnest, natural piety. No wonder then that
he rebuked the popular religionists of his day for
their notoriously ostentatious and hypocritical forms
and expressions of reverential feeling and faith in
God, and that he imperatively charged his followers
to shun their evil examples; as when he said, "The
Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses 1 seat ; all there-
fore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do, but do not ye after their works, for they say
and do not. 1 * "All their works they do to be seen
of men. They make broad their phylacteries, and
enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the
uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in
the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to
be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye
called Rabbi ( Master ) for one is your Master, even
Christ, and all ye are brethren." " He that is great-
est among you shall be your servant. And whoso-
ever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted," Matt, xxiii .
2, 3 5-8, 11, 12.

But while Jesus denounced all forms of pompous
and pretentious devotion, all false and arrogant
assumptions of religious interest and zeal, he by no
means underestimated the importance of the truly
devotional spirit or suffered his disciples to content

22 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

themselves with a barren, semi-atheistic, unrehgious
secularism, as if that was sufficient for all man's
moral and spiritual needs, and for the attainment of
the great ends of existence, as contemplated in the
primal and grandly beneficent purpose of the infinite
Creator. How did he magnify and emphasize the
first great commandment, closely connecting it with
the second, and linking the two in indissoluble rela-
tionship as indispensable concomitants of each other
and equally essential parts of the great whole of
human duty and obligation ! A certain Pharisee
captiously asked him on a particular occasion,
"Master, which is the great commandment in the
law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
with all thy mind. This is the first and great com-
mandment. And the second is like unto it ; Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Matt. xxii. 36-40. Here we have the primitive
Christian piety placed in its proper relationship to
true and pure morality. The two are expressed in
simplest terms, made to blend in perfect harmony
together, and seen to be divinely ordered counter-
parts or complements of each other. The heart
represents the emotional department of human
nature the affections or love-powers the desires,
impulses, ambitions, passions, that cluster in the
breast. The soul may be regarded as standing for
the department of the will for those powers and
capacities which are employed in determining one's
life-ideals and in shaping to them the character

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 23

and destiny. While the mind typifies man's intel-
lectual capacities reflection, reason, the judgment,
and the understanding. So we see that Christ's
piety implies arid demands the exercise of each and
all of the endowments or possibilities resident in
these several departments of one's being, the affec-
tions, the judgment, and the will, in the direction
and for the development of love to God, No one
of them is to be selfishly employed, or allowed to
set itself up as an idol, to which any or all others
are to bow in subjection. All are to be regulated
and controlled by a loving, reverent giving of them-
selves to God.

Loving God, moreover, implies not merely admira-
tion for His being and personality, but for His moral
attributes, qualities, and character; for His will, law,
and government ; in fine, for all that is heavenly and
divine; for all beings and things that He loves; it
is, in fact, coming into the mind and heart of God
and sharing His intrinsic life. It implies furthermore,
confidence in His goodness, wisdom, providence a
trust that knows no doubt or fear. Hence the
injunction; "Be not over-anxious, saying, what shall
we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed ? For your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you." Matt, vi .
25, 32, 33. In that blessed assurance the truly pious
heart finds peaceful content and joy unspeakable.
So it was with Christ. Seeking not his own will but
the will of Him that sent him, resisting all temptations

24 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

to mere self-gratification giving himself in a grand
disinterestedness to the work of uplifting and redeem-
ing the world, holding conscious fellowship with his
Father and our Father, he could say even in the face
of the dreadful cross, " Not my will but thine be
done " And the subordinate teachers of the Gospel
followed their great Leader, in this regard, with con-
scientious fidelity, as their preserved testimonies
abundantly prove. These are all summed up in
the exhortation of the chiefest of them all. " What-
soever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, and
not unto men." Col. iii . 23.

It appears finally from what has been said that
primitive Christian piety neither implies nor requires
-on the part of the truly devout anything except what
will help and bless both the souls and bodies of man-
kind. All are to prove themselves to be the true,
filial, dutiful children of the infinite Father, by being
true, loving, helpful, brethren of each other. This
is clearly taught in the solemn dramatic parable of
the judgment, which makes mercy and helpfulness to
needy, suffering humanity the ground of divine
approval, and the neglect thereof the ground of con-
demnation. The judge in that impressive scene
assumes the self-forgetting, generous attitude of one-
ness with the humblest of those before him ; saying,
Inasmuch as ye did it, or did it not, unto one of the
least of these my brethren, ye did it, or did it not, unto
me, and retributive sentence of approbation or of repro-
bation, of reward or of punishment, is passed accord-
ingly. And John, the beloved disciple, who seems
to have entered more fully into the heart of Christ

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 25

than any of his fellows, gives us the consensus of
the Apostolic teaching to the same effect, in the
striking passage; "If a man say, I love God, and
hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
God whom he hath not seen ? " John iv. 20.

Such is the transcendently excellent and perfect
piety of Primitive Christianity as I find it taught
and exemplified by Jesus and his Apostles. It will
receive further explication and illustration in my
next discourse.

What mind illumed by reason's quickening rays.

What heart inspired by heaven-descended grace.

What soul that lives to noble aims and ends,

But piety so pure and true commends '

No empty, lifeless forms it consecrates,

Nor superstition's altars decorates ;

No grim austerity doth it approve,

But pure devotion winged by faith and love.

All solemn artifice that cheats the crowd,

All costly pageantry to please the proud,

And all display that courts the gaze of man.

It deems perverse and puts beneath its ban.

No narrow superficial claim it makes ,

No liberty with human folly takes ;

But sways its royal scepter far and wide,

Wherever feelings stir or thoughts abide.

Commanding mind and heart and soul and will.

As unto God, all duties to fulfill.

The love of man is joined to love of God,

Owning the sacred bond of brotherhood ;

And no one can the Father's smile receive

Whose malice, scorn, and hate, his fellows grieve ;

For those who serve and worship him aright.

Must in the good of all mankind delight.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

blessed Christ, whose \\ords and actions taught

A worship with supernal honors fraught.

When shall thine own ideal Church arise

To lead the \\orld to thee to harmonize

Our warring race, and with thy holy leaven

Of grace and tiuth, make of this earth a heaven?

Give thou us minds that we may clearly see

What are the duties that we owe to thee ,

And hearts of love, to work and watch and pray ;

Helpers of thee, to bring that triumph day

When all earth's clivers kingdom shall be thine,

Replete \\ith holiness and bliss divine

DISCOURSE III.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN PIETT: PART 2.

" I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,.
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not con-
formed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and accept-
able, and perfect \\ill of God " Rom, xii. r, 2.

The mercies of God are so tender, loving, innu-
merable, and universal, that, if we could justly com-
prehend and appreciate them, we should instinctively
and spontaneously love Him with all our hearts, and
devote ourselves, soul and body, with every faculty
of our natures, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
unto Him. And this would seem to us "our reason-
able service " It would under such circumstances
be our highest ambition and supreme endeavor, not
to conform ourselves to this world's desires, customs,
fashions, and multiform idolatries, but to be trans-
formed in our ruling loves, principles, and spirit, by
true regeneration so as to prove, experimentally and
practically, the perfection of God's will. That will
is infinitely benevolent and wise. It is the only reli-
able guide to virtue and happiness ; because it is the
only sure and trustworthy indication of what is for
the highest permanent good of His creatures, individ-
ually, socially, collectively, and universally. The

"28 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

pure primitive Christian piety assures us that it is
supreme over all creature wills, and requires us to
reverence it with the profoundest love, confidence,
and devotion. I, therefore, in the preceding dis-
course, pronounced it a perfect piety, giving a par-
tial exposition of it and promising farther elucidation
and illustration in the present one. I can best fulfill
this promise, perhaps, by considering explicitly how,,
it supplies the deepest wants of human nature and
how indispensable it is to the salvation of the world
from sin and misery, and to its ultimate attainment
of universal holiness and happiness.

What then, I ask to begin with, are the deepest
wants of our nature ? To know what is absolutely
right and best for us, all things considered; to be
established from principle in the love of what is right
and best above every competing attraction, and to
obtain the spiritual strength necessary to act out
our highest convictions of duty, in regard thereto
Many are ignorant of what is right and best, and so
offend and are miserable. Others though more
enlightened are not principled in the love of what is
right and best, and so rush headlong or slide imper-
ceptibly but surely into sin and wretchedness.
Others still fail of holiness and happiness, through
inability to resist temptation, to act up to noble con-
victions, and to overcome evil in themselves and
others with good Now true Christian piety supplies
these several wants as nothing else can. How ? By
bringing us into vital communion with an -all-perfect
heavenly Father who knows what is absolutely right
and best for us, who delights in communicating that

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 2&

knowledge to us, who is constantly by His spirit seek-
ing to influence us to the love of it, and whose own
divine strength for the attainment of the highest
and noblest objects in life is always available to sup-
plement and reinforce our mortal weakness. There-
fore, to love Him with our whole heart, soul, and
understanding, so that we have no rival love for any
being or thing, but confide implicitly in Him, bring-
ing us into living relations with Him, insures our
progress in holiness and happiness unto final perfec-
tion It is thus and only thus that we can be pre-
pared to receive that spirit which will lead us into all
divme truth and become our ever-present Guide,
Reprover, Sanctifier, and Comforter. Discarding
this piety, we cut ourselves loose from our heavenly
Father, ignore or contemn our natural filial relation-
ship to Him and the help we thereby derive from Him,
and rely upon our own self-sufficiency. The result
must needs be failure. For the simple reason that
our ^^"-sufficiency is ^sufficiency. All the faculties
and capabilities of our nature were derived from
God, are not self-existent, are finite and dependent,
and have no inherent ability either to sustain or
wisely regulate themselves. Every one of them is
good in itself if kept in its proper place and held to
its proper office; but productive of evil if disorderly
and out of place, according to the extent of abuse.
And the only safeguard against abuse is this very
piety which binds us with indissoluble bonds of rev-
erential love to our heavenly Father, so insuring us
a supply for our deepest wants in this regard the
needful restraint and guidance by the unobstructed

SO PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

influx of His holy Spirit. Whatever prevents or
hinders this divine inflowing from the source of all
good, as reliance on our own sufficiency does, works
mischief and misery to us.

This leads us to consider how indispensable the
piety of Christ is to the salvation of the world
Why is there so much wretchedness and woe in the
world > Primarily and chiefly because of the sinful-
ness therein. And why so much sinfulness ? For
the reason that mankind are alienated from the one
only living and true God and wedded to idols. And
what are those idols ? There are legions of them.
Whatever we prefer to our heavenly Father is an
idol to us ; our real deity. For we cannot serve two
or more masters. The one we hold dearest rules
us is our idol. It may not be an image of wood,
stone, or precious metals, after the fashion of heathen
peoples ; nor any being or thing formally consecrated
as an object of worship; yet none the less is it an
idol It demands what the Most High forbids, and
we reverence and obey it more than we do Him. It
competes with Him for our hearts, and we give them
to it rather than to Him. It conflicts with His will
and we yield it the homage which is His due.
Everything of this nature is practical idolatry, what-
ever professions we make or ceremonies we keep.

Pagan Rome had a splendid temple called the
Pantheon ; that is, the Sanctuary of all the Gods ;
deemed by Pliny one of the wonders of the ancient
world. The recognized divinities of the then pre-
vailing polytheism were represented in its images 01
symbols. Modern civilization claims to have out-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 31

grown all forms of mythologic superstition, especially
the worship of idols. But it has only metamor-
phosed and somewhat refined the idolatry of bygone
days. What are the popular egoism and the multi-
plied forms of self-seeking it engenders and repre-
sents but a vast Pantheon subjectively existent in
the human mind, wherein unnumbered false gods are
set up and adored ? But let me particularize some-
what and bring to notice some concrete examples of
what I have in my mind regarding the idolatry of
modern life, and,

i. What is Pleasure but a many-faced idol, receiv-
ing continually the adulation and homage of immense
throngs of votaries ? By pleasure, I mean, not inno-
cent reaction or amusement, not the reasonable
gratification of any natural desire, taste, or emotion
of the human mind, heart, bodily sense, or appetite,
held to its legitimate uses ; but that artificial self-
exhilaration, or delight which comes of some tem-
porary excitation of feeling or stimulant out of the
line of the divine order of the world, and not con.
sonant with the permanent good and happiness of
him who experiences it or of others. Nor do I
mean that satisfaction and enjoyment which are sub-
ordinate to and harmonious with the will of God, the
love of righteousness, and the joy-crowned fruits of
well-doing. But I mean pleasure for its own sake,
as the leading object of human pursuit and the great
end of life. To seek pleasure after this fashion is
what I deem a reprehensible form of idolatry, what
I call pleasure worship. Is not the world, even in
its most advanced portions, permeated with this

32 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

unhallowed devotion to false ideals with this wor-
ship of a false and treacherous divinity ? Behold
the wide-spread eagerness to see and hear some new
and fascinating thing, to furnish the appetites and
tastes with some fresh gratification, to multiply the
means by which the desires, the imaginations, the
passions of men are indulged and enchanted ! What
multitudes seem to live chiefly to be entertained,
amused, or regaled with some sport, game, play, or
other form of merry-making, as if life was a gala-day,
a frolic, a masquerade ; a revel, perhaps a carousal,
a saturnalia, and not a rich boon from the Giver of
all good, a solemn trust freighted with grave and
grand responsibilities, a field for noble service and
lofty endeavor, a glorious opportunity for gaining,
by the way of duty and sacrifice, of love to God and
man, immortal honors and rewards.

Beside the natural wants of man, which, in the
divine economy, are duly provided for, such provis-
sion affording ample opportunity for legitimate and
guileless enjoyment, a host of artificial ones have
been created by the fertile ingenuity of the human
mind, adding nothing to the diginity, worth, or glory
of the noblest product of the handiwork of God, but
rather detracting therefrom ; many of them clamor-
ous as hungry wolves for their appropriate satisfac-
tion and its attendant relish and delight. Among
these are found marvelous varieties of the distinctive
forms of idolatry under notice, from the most vulgar,
brutish, and repulsive, to those that are highly intel-
lectual, refined and aesthetic, and hence less worthy
of reprehension. On the one hand, we behold

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. S3

drunkenness, gluttony, and debauchery; bull-baiting,
prize-fighting, and horse-racing ; on the other,
epicurean feasting, genteel revelry, and fashionable
display ; sensational literature, empty oratory, and
even religious buffoonery and jugglery.

By such agencies as these and through such instru-
mentalities does pleasure exercise its ignominious
sway and hold fast to itself its willing, deluded
devotees. For the time being, pleasure over-
rides all other considerations and reigns a god
supreme

And with what results ? What are the fruits of
these manifold forms of diversion and pleasure seek-
ing ? Disease of body, unsoundness of mind, per-
version of the moral sensibilities a partial or total
degradation of character, and a greater or less dis-
qualification for the higher pursuits and the more
sacred responsibilities of life Not infrequently is it
ignorance, poverty, vice, crime, wretchedness, mani-
fold forms of human debasement, a loosening of
the bonds of domestic and social order, a letting
down of the moral and religious tone of the commu-
nity, a sensible deterioration of both private and
public character in general society and throughout
the body politic ; universal demoralization.

And what is the remedy ? A penitent return to the
Father like that of the prodigal in the New Testa-
ment story the piety which Christ taught and
exemplified. We must learn that self-denial, priva-
tion, toil, and pain are often better for us than
pleasure that we must even abstain in order to
enjoy; that the cross ensures the crown; and that

34 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

God's righteousness must be held supreme over all
other claims and delights

2. We next come into the presence of another
great idol with its multitude of worshipers, viz.:
self-will Proclaim God's will, law, and order
absolute right and the highest good of all beings, and
there is protest if not rebellion In every direction
dissent arises, saying in thought if not in words ; " I
know best ; I have a will of my own ; I shall take
my own course and risk the consequences ; I am not
to be crossed, bridled, restrained ; I am bound to
live as I please " To one thus minded, religion is
nothing, reason is nothing, the bitter experiences of
a thousand generations are nothing, Christ is nothing,
God himself is nothing Against the conceit and
self-deification of such persons the most solemn con-
siderations are of no account They rush upon
their own destruction and are overwhelmed with
misery before they can be brought to say in humble
submission "Not my will but thine, O God, be done."
Yet there is no salvation for them without coming
to this. To worship the selfish will-god is a ca-
lamitous infatuation

3. Popularity, or Love of Applause, is another
deceitful, dangerous idol ; less malignant and odious
than self-will but more seductive and enslaving in
its influence over its myriads of devotees. To be
admired by fellow-beings, to be distinguished among
them, to have their commendation and praise, seems
to be one of man's organic loves, a ruling passion in
his breast No doubt it is a good impulse in itself
and has a sphere of rightful exercise and of worthy

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 35

use m human life. But that must be in strict subor-
dination to the divine law and to the highest, most
comprehensive good. The moment it transcends
this limit it becomes a bewitching idol. And such it
is to multitudes in almost every department of
individual and social life. Given supremacy, it is
prolific of a vast bevy of evil ambitions and emula-
tions; of servile conformity to hurtful fashions,
customs, and habits ; of vain and extravagant dis-
play , of rivalry, intrigue, and deceit ; of pompous
parade and hypocrisy ; and sometimes of ridiculous
sycophancy and clownish dissimulation. We find
more or less of it almost everywhere, in all grades of
society, among all kinds of people. Its ruling motive
is "to be seen of men " ; to be noticed, applauded,
honored, rendered popular, or perhaps notorious. It
loves the praise of men more than the approval of
God and a good conscience. " It prefers," as Lord
Mansfield says, " the shouts of a mob to the trumpet
of ( immortal ) fame " What are its fruits ? Artifi-
ciality, duplicity, hypocrisy, demoralization, mani-
fold forms of vice and consequent misery. And
mankind are to be saved from this kind of idolatry
and its attendant evils only by the power of that
pure piety which exalts God above all other objects
of worship, and deems His approval of more value
than all possible human admiration, applause, and
glorification,

4. Another conspicuous idol of our day and time,
disputing the supremacy of the Infinite Spirit, is
Wealth, known in 'heathen mythology as Mammon,
to whom America in large degree and all the world

86 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

payeth homage. Jesus truly said " Ye cannot serve
God and Mammon " ; and Paul as truly called covet-
ousness, another name for mammon-worship, idolatry.
Every one seems ready to condemn and denounce
this form of impiety, but few are ready to forsake it.
Like the fox in the fable men cry "sour grapes"
respecting wealth beyond their reach, but clutch
with eager grasp all that they can lay hands upon.
Nevertheless, when avarice, or love of money, or greed
of worldly gain, sets God, His righteous law, and the
welfare of mankind at nought, it is fraught with
great peril to character and to the higher interests of
society. " God and his righteousness " must be
sought first, and property of whatever sort, earthly
possessions, afterward. We must neither acquire,
hoard up, or expend money or other goods in contra-
vention of the requirements of the two great com-
mands, of the golden rule, of our own and our
family's permanent good, or of the good of any
human being. If this leaves us no liberty to idolize
property, or to wrongfully obtain or use it, this is
just what the primitive piety of the Gospel suggests,
what we all need, and what the world must come to
in order to its salvation from that type of selfishness
which the worship of mammon represents, and which
is one of the chief causes of human degradation and
misery. In that blessed consummation which will
realize to every man the adequate supply of his
every necessity and bind all the race of man together
in the bonds of a common brotherhood, all material
possessions will be regarded as belonging virtually to
God, to be husbanded and disposed of by men as His

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 37

stewards, in such a way that none shall suffer want
and none have or desire more than they can use
wisely for the promotion of their own and others
good, for the dissemination of the truth, and for the
building up of the divine kingdom on the earth.

5. Men make an idol of Power, of dominion
and authority over fellow-human beings. They not
only admire, honor, pay homage to those who occupy
positions of authority, dictation, and command, but
aspire to such positions for themselves, The desire
to govern, to bear rule, to exercise control over
others, is a very strong passion in many people;
and to do so not by reason, persuasion, personal
influence and example, or scrupulous adherance to
what is true and right, but by arbitrary power, by
autocratic domination, by artful cunning, by shrewd
management, or, if need be, by sh^er compulsion,
threats of violence, or, in the last resort, by the iron
hand ; for purposes of self-exaltation and to gain a
wider and more absolute sway. This idolatry finds
notable exemplification in despots and tyrants, both
on thrones and in social life, in aristocrats and dema-
gogues, in party leaders and aspirants for office on
the common plane of political ambition and strife.
Devotees at this shrine must be at the top, must
occupy places of dominion, must govern, by fair
means or foul, open or covertly, singly or in company
with others. Their determination is to rule, to carry
their own particular plans or measures, to secure
what they deem right, proper, expedient ; " peaceably
if they can, forcibly if they must." Such idolatry
as this is largely prevalent. But it is not consistent

38 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

with the perfect love of God and man It is not con-
sistent with the idea of human brotherhood It is
not consistent with any of the larger interpretations
of the Christian Gospel. It is of the carnal mind,
not of the spiritual This world, under the impulse
of worldly ambitions and purposes, will have it so ;
and having it so, millions suffer and groan under the
burden of those monstrous sins and sorrows which
such idolatry such ambitions and purposes generate
and perpetuate. And there is only one remedy
only one way of salvation for those thus affected ,
the embrace and exemplification of the piety of
Christ, in conformity with the spirit of the precept,
" Whosover will be great among you let him be your
servant." Matt. xx. 27

6. Closely related to the particular type of idola-
try just spoken of that of personal exaltation and
dominion is that of blind devotion to the interest,
will, exaltation, and glory of groups of fellow-creat-
ures to whom we are strongly attached and with
whom we are closely connected by some natural or
organic relationship. The most prominent of these
attached and closely related groups are the family,
the social club, the philanthropic or other order, the
political party, the church or denomination, the state,
and the nation. These several groups may be and
are in themselves natural, innocent, and justifiable.
In all of them there are duties which God lays upon
those forming them, from the least of them to the
greatest, and from all conditions and classes of
human beings. All such duties, however peculiar
and special, are consistent with all other duties,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 39

whether towards God, man, or the universe If they
are more immediately beneficent to some, they are
remotely so to others, and, while injuring none, pro-
mote the good of all The scrupulous performance
of them is therefore loyalty to God and the dictate
of true piety. But when love and devotion to
family, club, order, party, church, state, or nation,
take the place of and supersede loyalty to God and
to the absolute, eternal, divine law, so that we support,
stand by and defend them, right or wrong \ when we
are led to lie, defraud, extort, persecute, injure, maim,
kill, or in any way disobey God and set His law at
defiance for their sake, what are we but idolaters of
a most pronounced and reproachable type ! And
what are these associated organic bodies but the real
idols of our hearts, whom we worship and adore to
the practical exclusion from His proper throne of the
great Ruler of the world and Father of the spirits
of all flesh ? Is not the world thereby contaminated,
perverted, led far astray from the true object of
worship and from its own real well-being and happi-
ness? And is not the piety of Christ indispensably
necessary to its deliverance in this regard ?

7 One more group of the world's idols I must
not omit to mention the most grim, horrible, and
deceitful of all. Chiefest of those forming this
group are brute force, deadly combat, warlike hero-
ism, destruction of enemies, vindictive punishment,
persecution of heretics, penal infliction, and physical
violence under various injurious forms. These false
gods are worshiped more or less slavishly by almost
the entire human race. Hence war, wrath, cruelty,

40 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and all manner of terrible evils kindred thereto, roll
their dark, angry billows over the four quarters of
the globe, deluging the earth with blood and destroy-
ing uncounted multitudes of the ^ children of men.
The abominations, the calamities, the miseries thus
caused cannot be estimated by human calculation.
God, by His son Jesus Christ, fof bids "all this hate-
ful, deplorable idolatry. But the world, even the
most civilized portions of it, still clings to it tena-
ciously, unwilling to abandon it, unwilling to be
taught a better way. It delights in this state of
things, preferring it and the spirit of barbarism which
gives it birth to that required perfect love of God
and man which worketh no harm to any one, which
suffereth long and is kind, and which overcomes evil
only with good. The pure piety of Christ is the
only remedy for this almost universal adoration and
homage paid to brute force and its kindred deities,
and an essential pre-requisite to the bringing in of the
long-deferred reign of amity, brotherhood, and peace.
It is the same cure-all that is needed for all the
multiform idolatries that have supplanted the worship
of the one only living and true God in the experience
of mankind and multiplied the agonies and desola-
tions that afflict the world. Whatever men love and
serve instead of their heavenly Father as first and
foremost in their regard, enslaves, degrades, imbrutes
them, and renders them miserable. Where their
treasures are, their hearts are, and there they them-
selves are, soul and body, "worshiping the creature
more than the Creator" wretched idolators, pierc-
ing themselves through with many sorrows. What

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 41

we worship fashions our characters and rules our
lives. If we worship the One supreme Perfect All-
Father we are clothed upon with His divine attri-
butes, we take upon ourselves His image, we enter
into His life and His peace, and His life and peace
enter into us. If we worship the idols I have named
or any other, we so far turn away from the Infinite
One, disregard His will, despise His commandments,
and quench His spirit ; we also turn away from the
life and peace impersonated in Him and communica-
ble to us, if we will have them, and make insane war,
not only against the universal good, but against our
own highest welfare. If we give God and His right-
eousness our undivided and unswerving allegiance,
the loving loyalty of our very souls, we are in pos-
session of primitive Christian piety. This alone, as
the vital source of all virtue, and holiness, and happi-
ness, can renew and transfigure the world and make
of it the earthly province of the kingdom of heaven.
The renunciation of all idolatries is the only hope
of the race. Clinging to them there is no deliverance
for it from the seething abyss of its follies and woes-.
If it be said that this cannot be done, that man is
wedded to his idols and will not give them up, will
not embrace and illustrate the piety of Christ, my
only reply is that he must continue to suffer the
consequences of his disloyalty and impiety till he
repents and puts away his sin and guilt. But will
you and I, my friends, to bring the matter to a per-
sonal application will we remain bound in the
prisonhouse of the world's heathenish practices, the
slavish devotees of false gods? Will we reject

42 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Christ and that pure piety of his which enabled him
to say, "It is my meat and my drink to do the will
of him that sent me"? Heaven forbid such revolt
against the Highest on our part, and prompt each
and every one of us to exclaim in deep contrition
and with full purpose of soul,

L The dearest idol I have known,

Whatever that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne

And worship only thee "

DISCOURSE IV.

CORRUPTIONS OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN PIETY'
PART 2.

IX RELATION TO WORSHIP.

" God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands as though
he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and
all things *' Acts xvii 24, 25.

I have endeavored in a preceding chapter to set
forth clearly the distinctive peculiarities and excel-
lences of pure, primitive Christian Piety, naming
several important particulars, to wit : I. It is a
perfectly rational piety ; 2. It is a perfectly sincere,
unostentatious, and spiritual piety; 3. It is a per-
fectly radical, comprehensive, and uncompromising
piety ; 4. It is a perfectly unselfish piety on God's
part ; 5. It is a perfectly philanthropic, humane, bene-
ficent, and Christ-like piety. I proceed now to show
that this piety has been grossly corrupted in certain
cardinal respects. One of these I propose to treat
in the present discourse that respecting worship.
This may be conveniently done under four heads,
viz. : the nature of worship ; the design of worship ;
the expression of worship ; and the sanctuaries of
worship.

44 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I The nature of worship As I have already
attempted to sho.w, Christ and his Apostles carefully
taught that the only true worship of God is essen-
tially moral and subjective the "worship of the
Father in spirit and in truth." It consists in nothing
of a material nature offered to God; in nothing done
for or said to him. In this particular it was essen-
tially different from Jewish, Samaritan, and Gentile
practices of early Christian days. It consists in
love, adoration, prayer, thanksgiving, and other holy
emotions cherished towards the infinite Father Spirit,
and, through these, in fellowship with him. In other
words, it is a sacred, intercommunication between
each soul and its Maker; which derives no worth
from time, place, companionship, or external demon-
stration, and which can be judged as to its value only
by its moral effects upon the character and life of the
worshiper. Such must be the truest, purest, highest
-worship. Jesus not only taught such worship but was
its most illustrious exemplar. The Apostles and
many of the early disciples tried hard to be their
Master's faithful followers in this matter. But their
fidelity provoked the obloquy and most bitter
reproaches of both Jews and Gentiles about them.
The former accused them of apostasy from the sac-
rificial rites of Moses, and the latter of atheism,
Dr Mosheim, the great ecclesiastical historian says ;
" Another circumstance which irritated the Romans
against the Christians was the simplicity of their
worship, which resembled in nothing the sacred rites
of any other people. They had no sacrifices, tem-
ples, images, oracles, or sacerdotal orders ; and this

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 45-

was sufficient to bring upon them the reproaches of
an ignorant multitude who imagined that there could
be no religion without these. Thus they were looked
upon as a sort of atheists ; and by the Roman laws
those who were chargeable with atheism were
declared the pests of human society." So the very
excellence of their worship became a ground of the
world's persecution. But this was during the first and
second centuries It did not last long. Not because
of any change in the character or spirit of the foes
of Christianity, but on account of the falling away of
the Christians themselves from their original lofty
standard in this particular.

The apostasy or corruption of the Primitive Chris-
tian piety commenced even in apostolic times A
party of Jewish disciples arose, who were so zealous-
for the ceremonial law that they could not tolerate
the more catholic minded Paul, and insisted that
all the converted Gentiles should be required to con-
form to the Levitical ordinances. This caused the
first contention in the infant church and resulted at
length in an open schism. The Mosaic sacrificial wor-
ship was regarded as sacred by one party, while the
other held that the new faith wholly superseded it, ren-
dering it utterly null and void, Yet the latter ere long
yielded to the inroads of corruption in another guise.
The second century had not closed before the demo-
cratic, fraternal order of church government was
changed by gradual processes into a nascent episco-
pacy, with ambitious ecclesiastics in power. Dr.
Mosheim says; "There is no institution so pure and
excellent which the corruption and folly of man will

46 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

not in time alter for the worse and load with addi-
tions foreign to its nature and original design. Such
in a particular manner was the fate of Christianity.
In this century many unnecessary rites and cere-
monies were added to the Christian worship, the
introduction of which was extremely offensive to
wise and good men These changes, while they
destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel,
were naturally pleasing to the gross multitude, who
are more delighted with the pomp and splendor of
external institutions than with the native charms of
rational and solid piety." "There is a high degree
of probability in the notion of those who think that
the bishops augmented the number of rites in the
Christian worship, by way of accommodation to the
infirmities and prejudices, both of Jews and heathens,
in order to facilitate their conversion to Christianity."
This work of deterioration and corruption pro-
gressed rapidly as time went on. In the fourth
century it reached such a pitch that the famous
St. Augustine, who struggled in vain against it,
declared that "the yoke under which the Jews
formerly groaned was more tolerable than that
imposed upon many Christians " in his day. " Hence "
says Dr. Mosheim, "it happened in those times, that
the religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very
little in its external appearance from that of the
Christians. They both had a most pompous and
splendid ritual; gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax
tapers, crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, gold
and silver vases, and many such circumstances of
pageantry, were equally to be seen in the heathen

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 47

temples and in the Christian churches." Thus the
corruption went on from bad to worse till the wor-
ship of Christendom became, with a few unpopular
exceptions, almost as materialistic, sensuous, and
externally showy as that of Pharisaic Jewry, or semi-
civilized pagandom. And the evil has come down to
our own day, so sanctified by tradition and custom
that few professing Christians even suspect its utter
incongruity with the teachings and example of their
acknowledged Master.

2 The design of worship its chief aim and use.
Christ evidently meant to teach that the design, aim,
and use of true worship are to spiritualize and moral-
ize the worshiper by bringing him into closer com-
munion with the all-perfect Father thus rendering
him god-like, heavenly-minded, and happy. But this
was not the chief object of the worship generally
prevalent among the Jews and Gentiles before his
coming. That object was to propitiate God, secure
His favor, and maintain religious institutions in the
reverence of the multitude. Of course, the incident-
al motive was always pleaded, that worship promoted
moral restraint and order among the people ; and
hence, it was deemed a social, political, and govern-
mental necessity, as well as a solemn religious duty.
Christ based the true worship on no such grounds.
His God was "the Father," who was inherently and
unchangeably good to all, even to the unthankful
and evil. No worship could make Him more so.
He needed nothing to propitiate Him. His favor
was as inherent and irreversible toward all His off-
spring as His inmost nature He only required His

48 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

children to feel after Him, seek Him, love Him, wor-
ship and adore Him, that they might be spiritually
and morally like Him , that they might share His
life, enjoy His presence, be kind and helpful to one
another, dwell together in harmony and peace, and
so each and all attain the highest possible perfection
and blessedness

But it was not long before corruption began to
manifest itself in this particular. The Christian
church was so easily leavened with Jewish and
heathen notions of worship, that, by the time it was
made subject to official and clerical control in the
latter part of the second century, its departures from
the simplicity that was in Christ had come to be not
only apparent but deplorable. Thenceforth, with
minor exceptions, the objects, aims, and uses of its
worship were the same precisely as those prevailing
in the ante-Christian world ; viz. : to propitiate God's
wrath, secure His favor, and hold the masses by a
sort of superstitious necromancy to the reverence
and support of external religious institutions. Even
to this day has this corruption of the true idea^of the
purpose of worship, to a greater or less extent, pre-
vailed. O how few people accept, appreciate, and
improve worship as a heavenly privilege, ordained by
their Father in heaven for the sublime purpose of
rendering them His true children in spirit, conduct,
moral character, and divine enjoyment! Yet this, I
repeat, is its grand aim and use according to the
teachings of Primitive Christianity and the example
of the Master. Who will hear, consider, and act
consistently with that view ?

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 49

3. The expression of worship in other words,
its manner and form All the feelings, sentiments,
and emotions of human nature have some mode of
expression, some way of manifesting themselves in
the experience of men, either internally or externally
or both. Internal expression is cognizable only by
one's own spiritual consciousness, by God and by
other spiritual intelligences similarly capacitated and
exercised. External expression is cognizable by the
outward senses of beings possessing a physical
organism. True worship, as Christ defined and
practised it, is chiefly and vitally expressed in
secret prayer, adoration, meditation, and mental
exercises of devotion, indulged in as between the
worshiper and the Deity exclusively, irrespective of
any observance or participation by others. Subordi-
nately, occasionally, and incidentally, it may be
expressed externally, socially, and publicly, in various
forms or services of devotion, including vocal prayer,
singing, and exhortation, which must be heartfelt,
sincere, appropriate; not for worldly adminition,
personal ostentation, or as unto man, but unto God.
This outward worship must be primarily from
within, "in spirit and in truth." I need not enlarge
on the original simplicity of Christian worship in
this feature of it, nor on the corruptions which have
reversed the positive instructions of Christ and set
at nought his example ; and which have rendered
much of what passes for Christian worship a solemn
ceremonial and little more ; a public exhibition
addressed to the eyes, ears, and aesthetic tastes of
the attending multitude ; a sort of popular, pious

50 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

entertainment, calculated to please the senses and
imagination of non-participating observers Even
the more common and unconventional exercises of
social worship are often sadly contaminated with
vitiating elements of formality, affectation, vain
repetition, and mere noise, which promote little holy
communion with God and serve worldly aims and
ends rather than heavenly ones. Whether we criti-
cise Catholics, Greeks, or Protestants on this point,
we may see the need of a radical reform a return
to primitive Christian simplicity and purity

4. The sanctuaries of worship Finite beings,
clothed in material bodies and animating fleshly
frames, must by the very necessities of their complex
nature be somewhere in space and time, whatever
they do or are. If they worship, even in secret,
they must occupy some definite locality , if they
worship socially, as it is natural, right, fitting, and
mutually helpful for them to do, they must have
some particular, generally understood, appropriate
place and hour of meeting and of devotion. Yet, as
I showed from the record, Christ and his Apostles
made no part of true worship dependent on place or
fime, but wholly on the right state of mind and heart.
Neither in the temples of Jerusalem, Samaria, or any
other holy city, was it necessary to appear in order
to render acceptable offerings to Him who fills
immensity with His presence, who need not be
sought in any given locality, and who hath an altar in
every humble and contrite heart. Worship "in spirit
and in truth" is everywhere approved and accepted
of the Father of all souls. Any other, nowhere.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 51

Holy places, days, and seasons, are neither enjoined
nor prohibited by Primitive Christianity Altars,
temples, sabbatic institutions, sacred festivals, and
ritual observances were not forbidden or condemned*
nor were they held up for human reverence as/^v se
holy in the sight of God. They were utilized as
privileges, worthy of regard and maintenance, as
means and conveniences for the enlightenment,
reformation, spiritual quickening, and happiness of
mankind. If they subserved these ends, it was well
But otherwise, if they were used as substitutes for
personal holiness, offsets for acts of justice and
chanty, or cloaks to hide any kind of wickedness,
they were not simply regarded as of no account but as
snares to the souls of men. This is sound doctrine
So thought the primitive Christians, and they prac-
tised accordingly. They had no sacred places, sanctu-
aries or church edifices for purposes of worship,
religious edification, and praise, distinctively set apart
and dedicated, for more than a century after they
began to associate together as companies of believers
in and followers of Jesus.

Dr. Mosheim says on good authority ; "The places
in which the first Christians assembled to celebrate
divine worship were, no doubt, the houses of private
persons But in process of time it became
necessary that these sacred assemblies should be
confined to one fixed place, in which the books,
tables, and desks required in divine service, might be
constantly kept, and the dangers avoided which in
those perilous times attended their transportation
from one place to another. And then, probably, the

52 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

places of meeting that had formerly belonged to
private persons became the property of the whole
Christian community." " If any one pleased to give
the name of church to a house or the part of a house,
which, though appointed as the place of religious
worship was neither separated from common use nor
considered as holy in the opinion of the people, it will
be readily granted that the most ancient Christians
had churches " Again, " The first Christians assem-
bled for the purposes of divine worship, in private
houses, in caves, and in vaults where the dead were
buried. Their meetings were on the first day of the
week, and in some places they assembled on the
seventh, which was celebrated by the Jews. Many
also observed the fourth day of the week, on which
Christ was betrayed ; and the sixth, which was the
day of his crucifixion. The hour of the day appointed
for holding these religious assemblies varied accord-
ing to the different times and circumstances of the
church , but it was generally in the evening after
sunset or in the morning before the dawn."

It will be seen then from good historic testimony
that the primitive Christians had no specially conse-
crated churches or holy places They held their
religious convocations in such localities as, under
their variously restricted circumstances, were for the
time being most safe, convenient, and comfortable.
No great importance was attached to places, or to
times and seasons. The safety, convenience, and
comfort of the assembled people, not costly offerings
to God, nor worldly display, are clearly indicated as
the leading considerations in respect to assembling

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 53

for religious purposes. This suggests the ruling
principle on which all Christians, even in the highest
state of prosperity, ought to act in the erection of
edifices for public worship ; viz : simplicity, conven-
ience, and comfort nothing to flatter God, nothing
for vain glory, and nothing to astonish, please, and
captivate the multitude.

But the seductive voice of the tempter long ago
whispered triumphantly to the carnally inclined ear
of professing Christians, saying *'\Ve must not be
behind the Jews and Gentiles in glorifying God or
proselyting the world. Architectural magnificence,
splendid furnishing, and gorgeous decorations in our
church edifices, will greatly promote both. Our
cause is worthy of it and demands it, and we shall
be objects of derision and contempt without it.
People will be attracted to our gatherings by such
charms; they will thus be brought under Christian
influence ; they will be won to the Gospel ; souls will
be saved; and God will be honored and glorified "

By such specious pleadings, extravagance, worldli-
ness, and luxury gained an entrance within the con-
fines of the church, and corruption in a new form
turned the hearts of men away from the pure spirit
of the primitive Gospel. Immediately after the mar-
riage of the church and state under Constantine in
the fourth century, this defection became most strik-
ing and notorious. Hear Dr. Mosheim once more :
" No sooner had Constantine abolished the supersti-
t.ons of his ancestors, than magnificent churches
were everywhere erected for the Christians, which
were richly adorned with pictures and images and

54 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

bore a striking resemblance to the pagan temples,
both in their outward and inward form At this
time it was looked upon as an essential part of reli-
gion to have in every country a multitude of churches y
and here we must look for the true origin of what is
called the right of patronage, which was introduced
among Christians with no other view than to encourage
the opulent to erect a great number of churches by
giving them the privilege of appointing the ministers
that were to officiate in them."

In this way not only did a love of display and
worldly splendor supplant the humble, unostentatious
piety that characterized the first disciples but there
was introduced into the high places of the church,
to preside at its -altars and administer its affairs, as
ecclesiastics of various degree, a class of persons
who, appointed as they often were by unscrupulous
and ungodly patrons of religion and religious institu-
tions, and subject to their control, were unfit for
their positions, pursuing a policy which was not only
in contravention of the true idea of spiritual worship
but which was calculated to lower the previously
existing standard of morality and allow the genera-
tion and growth among the saints of manifold evils
unknown before No wonder that Christianity, sub-
jected to so many corruptions, should in due time
become a religion honeycombed with pompous super-
stitions, worldly display, selfish aggrandizement, and
persecuting violence, so that it was not infrequently
the case that the more show there was of worshiping
God, the less manifestation there was of practical
righteousness; a great gulf opening and widening

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 55

and deepening between what was called piety and a
pure and holy life. No wonder that while the
forms of religion were kept up with great punctili-
ousness and at immense expense, the grossest inhu-
manities and the most odious iniquities prevailed,
even within the pale of the church itself. Many
reforms relating to the evils now under notice have
been attempted in latter ages, with some degree of
success, but the mania for grand and imposing
houses of worship and for a splendid display of reli-
gious externals still prevails in the predominant and
more popular sects. And this form of corruption is
pitifully contagious and contaminating even among
those claiming to be rational, enlightened, liberal
Christians, the society of Friends and a few smaller
eccentric religious orders alone excepted. As to the
great body of the nominal church it is so far under
the dominion of reprehensible doctrines, ideas, and
practices, in the particulars mentioned in this dis-
course, that a thorough reformation and cleansing
are indispensable to the full actualization of the
primitive Christian ideal. This actualization seems
to be yet in the far distant future, but I have the
utmost confidence that it will some day be accom-
plished. In that day, come it sooner or later in the
progressive order of human events, will the true wor-
ship of God, as it is taught in the Gospel of Christ
and as it was illustrated in the life of Christ, be
established in all churches bearing His blessed name,
superseding all the perversions and vain formalities
which now usurp its place and hinder rather than
help the coming of the time when " Holiness to the

56 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY,

Lord" shall not only be ascribed to, but shall vitally
characterize all places, modes, appliances, and acces-
sories of worship, when "the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established in the top of the mountains
and be exalted among the hills, and all nations shall
flow unto it "

O glorious church renewed, which yet shall rise,
To save the world and greet the bending skies '
Redeemed from all corruption, lo, its light
Shall banish superstition's dreary night,
Dissolve the treacherous shadows of the past
And crown the truth triumphant at the last
Then shall the living God by men be known
Their heavenly Father, as by Jesus shown ;
Him all mankind shall worship and adore,
" In spirit and m truth " iorevermore.

DISCOURSE V.

CORRUPTIONS OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN PIETY:
PART 2.

IX RELATION Y TO RITES AND CEREMONIES.

k - Are ye so foolish ? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
made perfect by the flesh '" Gal iii 3.

The pure spiritual piety enjoined by Christ and
his early Apostles reduced the rites of religion to a
very few in number and to a low estimate in import-
ance. Aside from frequent meetings for moral and
spiritual edification and inspiration, the exercises of
which consisted in praying, singing, exhortation, and
religious instruction, together with what were termed
"feasts of charity/ 1 in which the disciples testified to
the heartfelt fellowship and mutual love existing
between them by simple friendly repasts and con-
tributions to the poor and needy aside from these
forms of worship, water-baptism and the eucharist,
or Lord's Supper, seem to have been the only exter-
nal observances which can be considered as definitely
established or held in any way sacred and binding in
the primitive Christian church. The great majority
of ceremonials and sacrifices regarded with scrupulous
solemnity by the Jews, were looked upon by the
Christians as types and shadows that were fulfilled
in their Lord, as greatly exaggerated non-essentials,

58 ' PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

or as human inventions of no practical worth what-
ever. In each and all these cases, the abuses which
had crept in under them, subordinating them to pur-
poses of superstition, self-exaltation, hypocrisy, and
inhumanity, were reprobated and severely denounced.
Baptism by water was an inheritance from the Jews>
among whom it was practiced as a symbol of purifica-
tion or change of moral life, coming through John,
the great baptizer and forerunner of Jesus, and gain-
ing acceptance among Christians as an initiatory sign
of admission into the brotherhood of the new faith,
and as a pledge of personal reformation and of fidel-
ity to the principles and duties which that faith
enjoined and required. The eucharist, or Lord's
Supper, was also of Jewish origin, having been
derived from the ancient feast of the Passover, which
was instituted to commemorate the deliverance of
the Israelites from Egyptian servitude, modified and
recast into a new form by omitting the roasted lamb
and other accessories of the old-time rite, thus adjust-
ing it to the simplicity of the order of church life under
the Christian dispensation, and making it commemo-
rative of Christ, the paschal Lamb of God, ordained
to deliver men and the world from the servitude of
sin.

Some religious extremists, and highly spiritualized
transcendentalists have considered water-baptism,
the Lord's Supper, and, indeed, all audible praying
and other outward forms of worship, as at best relics
of superstition or of childish and decaying religious
conceptions quite vain and useless if not absurd
and pernicious. Christ and hisjirst ministers thought

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 59

otherwise. They honored those observances by both
precepT and example in their true significance and
use, but took good care to guard them, so far as was
possible under the circumstances, against all misap-
prehension and abuse. And I cannot doubt, heeding
the teachings of history, observation, experience,
and sober reflection, that the wisdom of God, in and
through those personages, sanctioned and sanctified
those observances as means of edification, spiritual
uplifting, and renewal of life to those sincerely
regarding them and to the world. At any rate, I
have never discovered m those who discarded or
neglected them, either in former times or in our own
day, any evidence of moral and spiritual superi-
ority, any signs of gain to themselves or to the
church or to the cause of truth and holiness on that
account, but rather the contrary. I cannot but feel
that those persons, as a rule, who have for any reason
disregarded them have missed some of the most effi-
cient means of personal religious culture* and that
those churches that have abandoned them or suffered
them to fall into abeyance, have surrendered import-
ant agencies for accomplishing the distinctive work
which in the providence of God is given them to do ;
for gaining and retaining a hold upon the religious
affections and sensibilities of men, especially of the
young, and for advancing in the world the cause of
holiness and love. This, however, is not the place
to argue the utility and value of religious rites and
ordinances. The present duty is rather to expose some
of the principal corruptions of Primitive Christian
Piety 'in its relation to such rites and ordinances.

60 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I have just said that baptism and the Lord's Sup-
per were the only external observances which seem
to have been recognized and approved by Jesus, and
could be considered as established ceremonials
among the early disciples. But there very soon
arose a class of Judaizmg Christians, referred to in
a former discourse, who were tenacious of all the
requirements of the Levitical law, and who sought
earnestly and perseveringly to engraft those require-
ments upon the ritual of the primitive Christian
church. These people were undoubtedly sincere and
honest in their views and endeavors. They were
devotedly attached to the new religion They
believed in Christ with all their heart and in the
Father whom he revealed, as they did in the princi-
ples and duties which he inculcated. They suffered
great persecutions from both unbelieving Jews and
Gentiles on account of their steadfast, unfaltering
Christian faith. But at the same time they could
not understand the lofty spirituality or the unosten-
tatious simplicity of the Gospel Nor could they see
that Christ had freed them from the manifold rites
and sacrifices of the old dispensation. They clung
to those rites and sacrifices from a mistaken sense of
duty, and. as they believed and felt, in reverent
fealty to God It seemed to them that all the Gen-
tile converts must come under the same yoke of alle-
giance to the Jewish ceremonial in order to be true
followers of the Messiah He was himself one of
the Jewish race, and, in their view a product of the
Jewish faith a new prophet of that faith on a
higher plane and with a broader vision than those

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 61

who had preceded him, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, and
the rest. But the earlier Apostles and their co-work-
ers and immediate successors took more catholic
ground. They taught that Christ was " the end of
the law for righteousness " to "all his faithTul follow-
ers ; that, in the new order of life, " neither circumci-
sion availeth anything not uncircumcision but a new
creature"; that "in every nation he that feareth
God and worketh righteousness is accepted with
him " ; and that there should be rendered " glory,
honor, and peace to every one that worketh good, to
the Jew first and also to the Gentile "

It is not strange that considerable numbers of
people in that early time could not take this broad,
comprehensive, essentially moral and spiritual view
of the Christian Gospel They had been sedulously
trained to a different conception, under a different
regime. They had been led to lay great stress upon
outward religious forms and observances. And they
could not easily pass over to a new and unprece-
dented view to one seemingly opposed to what
they had hitherto deemed sacred and indispensable.
The old had been instilled into them from infancy, it
had beeome a part of their being ; the new had not
had time to eliminate it and take its place in their
inner consciousness, or to assume supremacy on the
altar of their lives. If in our own day so few under-
stand the high spirituality of pure Christian right-
eousness as distinguished from the external formalities
and ritualisms of the particular sectarian religion in
which they have been educated and upon which they
have been fed from their youth up, can any one

62 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

wonder that those old Jewish converts were similarly
benighted and lost to the most sublime characteris-
tics of Christian faith ?

Nor is it singular that the main body of the church
ere long fell into the same great error and became
involved in the same corruption of the primitive
doctrine concerning rites and ordinances. In defend-
ing the Old Testament against the attacks of the
Gnostic philosphers, its teachers assumed, by way of
argument, that the Christian church was in all essen-
tial respects the anti-type of the Mosaic. Consist-
ently with that view they were obliged to maintain
that its ministry in its official character must be a
regular priesthood, legitimately succeeding to all the
rights, privileges, and immunities of the Levitical
sacerdotal order, with, perhaps, some unimportant
modifications. Before the close of the second cen-
tury this feature of ecclesiasticism began to display
itself in a marked degree. The servants of the
church, as Paul was content to regard himself and
his co-laboring apostles, became its lords and rulers,
assuming unwarranted authority over the laity,
establishing higher and lower grades of official posi-
tion and duty among themselves, from provincial or
diocesan bishops down to humble deacons and dea-
conesses, governing the affairs of the church through
synods or councils ; in fact, setting up a priestly
caste whose policy it was to acquire, retain, and mul-
tiply their own exclusive prerogatives and powers.
This led them very naturally to resolve the primitive
Christian rites into sacraments and holy mysteries,
whereby the common people might be kept in greater

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 63

and more reverential subjection ; as it did to increase
the number of observances and solemnities within
their distinctive jurisdiction.

From this time forth baptism no longer preserved
its original simplicity and moral significance as a
sign of admission to the company and fellowship of
the disciples of Christ, and as a pledge of spiritual
renewal and consecration, but it became a holy ordi-
nance or means of purification from sin in some
directions an act of atonement for sin. The water
itself was declared to have some special saving power.
By solemnly devoting it to baptismal uses it became
impregnated, as was claimed, with the divine presence
and with superhuman virtue. It washed away all
past ,sj.ns. procuring a complete remission of them -
and making the recipient fit for heaven. It was the
sealing act of regeneration and of full acceptance
with God. Under this new view, it was for a time
the custom for believers to defer baptism until just
before death, in order to be sure that no fresh sins
should be committed, and, for lack of baptismal
remission, insure exclusion from paradise. Thus
Constantine the Great, though professedly converted
to Christianity in mid-life, did not submit to this rite
till near his decease, so that he might not afterward
sin and thus endanger his ascension to the mansions
of eternal life and blessedness Out of this miscon-
ception grew at length what was known as the doctrine
of Baptismal Regeneration, held to some extent at
the present day.

Among the early Christians baptism was adminis-
tered, as a general custom, at two holy seasons of

6-i PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the year; viz.: at the Easter festival held in com-
memoration of the resurrection of Christ, usually in
our month of April ; and on the Jewish day of
Pentecost, occurring fifty days later and commemo-
rating, under Christian auspices, the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit immediately after his ascension into
heaven. This anniversary at a later date came to-be
called Whitsuntide, because the recipients of baptism
were arrayed in white robes to denote their purifi-
cation from all evil In post-primitive times the
ordinance was administered in public with imposing
formalities by subordinate presbyters, and afterwards
confirmed with further solemnities by the bishops
Sponsors, under the name of godfathers, came into
vogue in due time, and subsequently a multitude of
minor rites were introduced as adjuncts of the prin-
cipal one. Among these were fasting, oral prayer,
the verbal renunciation of Satan and all his works,,
etc., before the rite was performed ; and after it, the J
imposition of hands, making the sign of the cross,
annointing with holy oil, a libation of milk and
honey, the mutual kiss of peace, the putting on of
white raiment, and the placing on the head crowns
and garlands of victory. At one period candles
were lighted on the occasion, salt was given the
baptized one, their lips and ears were touched by
the officiating priest with saliva from his own mouth,
and other more objectionable and even disgusting
practices prevailed. Much of this profane nonsense
was subsequently discarded by ecclesiastical author-
ity, but' a considerable portion of the less irrational
and repulsive of these accessories have been retained

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 65

in the Catholic church and in some Protestant
churches even to our own times.

It is altogether probable that the mode of baptism
was in the apostolic days that of immersion
the entire submergence of the body beneath the
surface of the river, lake, pool, or baptistry in which
the ceremony took place. Hence St. Peter compared
it to the passing through the deep waters of the flood.
And Paul says of it, " We are buried with Christ by
baptism at his death ; that like as Christ was raised,
thus we also should walk in the newness of life." So
practised and understood it had great significance.
" As the entrance into the Christian society," Dean
Stanley says, " it was a complete change from the old
superstitions or restrictions of Judaism to the freedom
and confidence of the Gospel ; from the idolatries
and profligacies of the old heathen world to the light
and purity of Christianity." With the progress of
time, however, as the religion of Jesus was carried
into colder latitudes and as the custom of baptizing
infant children came into favor, a gradual change
into the more convenient form of sprinkling was
introduced. This, less directly to be sure, but sym-
bolically, teaches to the intelligent mind the 'same
lesson of putting off " the old man which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts " and of putting on
" the new man which after God is created in right-
eousness and true holiness." To certain classes of
our modern Christians this change from immersion
to sprinkling in the mode of baptism is a serious
departure from the original method, and in their
judgment sets at nought the New Testament teach

66 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ing concerning the matter and invalidates the observ-
ance altogether Xot so, however, to those who
regard it simply as a token or symbol of a new pur-
pose in life and as a pledge of loyalty to Christ and
the church ; who are servants "not of the letter but
of the spirit " of the Gospel.

Since the time of the Reformation under Luther
and others, Protestants have to some considerable
extent eliminated from their ceremonial many of the
objectionable accessories of this rite which sprung
up in the post-apostolic ages, but a majority of them,
as well as the Roman and Greek Christians, still
endue it with sacramental virtues , to the extent in
some cases of ascribing to it, as I just now indicated,
regenerating power, which is foreign at least, if not
hostile to its primitive character, intent, and use It
must be divested of all these superstitious accretions
and con upturns before it will be conformed to the
original type as illustrated in the opening years of
our era.

The euchanst or Lard's Supper has fared worse
than the rite of baptism during the Christian ages
at the hands of ecclesiastic casuists and manipula-
tors" Instituted at the beginning as a simple act of
commemoration in honor of the great Teacher, its
grand and sublime purpose was that of rendering
those who observed it more Christlike in spirit, m
conduct, and in character. By calling to mind fre-
quently and impressively the pre-eminent self-sacrifice
of Christ as the highest manifestation of divine love,
as the ideal of human excellence, and as the animat-
ing spirit of his true church, his followers, by the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 67

law of spiritual affinityT^wouTcTS^ecome indissolubly
attached to him, and, through that attachment,
would be united in holy communion with each other
and with the Father all joined and working
together for the realization of the prayer, " Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. 5 '

For some time this ordinance seems to have
been understood and observed mainly in accordance
with this original design, and so was productive
of excellent moral results, faith, hope, love, illus-
trated in abounding self-sacrifice. The world never
before saw such illustrious exemplifications of prac-
tical, wide-spread benevolence, fraternity, and holy
martyrdom for righteousness sake, as were to
be found among the followers of the meek and
lowly Jesus.

But it was impossible for these early disciples,
converts from Jewish and heathen superstition, to
preserve in its pristine purity this simple, natural,
unostentatious rite. The first open departure from
its original character and use was to give it a spec-
ially sacramental significance, even to the extent of
making participation in it the equivalent of an oath
of allegiance to Christ, according to the primary
meaning of the word sacrament in the Roman
language from which it is derived, which is an oath
An oath is a solemn declaration made to God with
the implied invocation of His vengeance \i the
promise of the declaration is not fulfilled. Hence to
exalt the eucharist into a sacrament, in the sense
stated, had a tendency to create in the average mind

68 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the idea of the special divinity of Christ and ulti-
mately of his deity ; thus converting the rite in
question into an act of worshipful piety rather than
regarding it as a privilege, a suggestive lesson, and a
moral stimulant to holiness of heart and life in imita-
tion of Christ.

In keeping with this conception was another that
soon gained recognition and acceptance, to wit:
that it was one of the great mysteries of the Chris-
tian Gospel, far transcending those of the heather*
religions ; being characterized in the fourth century
as "a tremendous mystery, a dreadful solemnity, and
terrible to angels." This invested it with an awe
and a dread which instead of quickening, chilled and
deadened the finer sensibilities of the soul, and pre-
pared the way for the promulgation and reception of
the doctrine that the eucharistic emblems were a
veritable sacrifice to God, and that the table on which
they were laid was an altar, holy unto Him At the
moment when, by prayer or otherwise, the act of
consecrating the emblems took place, there passed
into them, it was said, an inconceivable divine virtue
which imparted to them special sacredness and value
as offerings to the Most High, and at the same time
rendered them miraculously potent to those who par-
took of them for the preservation of the body against
impending disease, debility, and death, and for the
deliverance of the soul from sin and all its conse-
qences, both in this world and in that to come.
From these and kindred sophistical and misleading
hypotheses there was gradually developed the famous
Catholic dogma of Transubstantiation, which came

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 69

to its consummation and open proclamation as an
article of faith in the celebrated Council of Trent
held in the sixteenth century The decrees of this
august body declared that the bread and wine of the
eucharist were miraculously transmuted into the real
body and blood of Christ, and hence that whoever
partook of these actually ate the flesh and drank the
blood of the Saviour of the world. The dogma of
^//substantiation, held by the Lutherans and some
other Protestants, differed from this only in teach-
ing that the body and blood of Christ were only
substantially and not really present in the eucha-
ristic emblems. Priestly assumption could rise no
higher nor human credulity be farther stretched than
is manifest in the promulgation and acceptance of
either of these views. From these and all other
vagaries and pious conjectures of purely human
devising, it is needful to go back to the simple
thought and feeling of the primitive church touching
this ordinance, keeping ever in view its original
character and purpose ; the maintenance and supreme
control in the human heart and in human life of
those great moral and spiritual realities for the sake
of which alone all religious forms exist, and without
which, as the ultimate object and aim, such forms
are but a vain and empty show.

I have not time or space to mention numerous
secondary rites, ceremonies, and usages, which from
time to time sprang up as adjuncts of the Lord's
Supper and were employed for the purpose of attract-
ing, impressing, and governing the masses of the
common people. Nor to speak of sundry kindred

70 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

inventions and devices which have made the
nominal Christian religion of the world, in respect
to rites and ordinances, little better than a sys-
tematic compound of Judaism and Paganism, vari-
ously modified and amalgamated so as to produce
change of external appearance rather than change
of essential substance. In this statement I include
all that pertains to the conduct of religions con-
vocations and to the manifold ceremonials of public
worship.

I conclude this discourse upon the corruptions of
Primitive Christianity in relation to rites and*" ordi-
nances by summing up what I have said under three
heads: i. Perverting the few original observances
from simple, benignant privileges, calculated to make
men morally and spiritually Christ-like, into mysteri-
ous, awful sacraments, designed to propitiate God
and enhance priestly importance. 2. Borrowing,
inventing, and adding to the few original observances
a vast number of others, purporting to be of divine
authority, for the same reprehensible purpose.
3. Metamorphosing the primitive Christian piety
from its original spiritual purity and grandeur, which
forbids all religious exercises and formalities "to be
seen of men," into a complex and meaningless ritu-
alism, replete with solemn pomp, sensuous splendor,
and worldly display. These corruptions, in the provi-
dence of God and the progress of mankind, will
sometime pass away, and the beautiful, sublime,
-edeeming simplicity of primitive Christian piety
will everywhere prevail. Then shall the Church rise
to its destined place of transcendent power among

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 71

men, and shine forth through all the earth in millen-
nial glory.

" The pure in heart, her baptized ones.
Love her communion cup/ 1

DISCOURSE VI.

CORRUPTIONS OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN PIETY:
PART 3.

IX RELATION TO ITS DIVORCE FROM MORALITY.

' Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and
not sacrifice '* Matt, ix 13

Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye
pay tithe of mint and annis and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith ; these
ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone."
Matt xxi ii. 23.

These texts renewedly indicate, what was plainly
set forth by me in a former discourse, that the pure,
primitive Christian piety was intimately related to
pure morality ; was, indeed, inseparably conjoined
with it, so that love of God, love of man, and love of
well-doing must stand or fall together. I there
showed, moreover, that such piety was not required
because God needed it, nor to propitiate His favor,
nor to render Him in any wise more kind, loving,
merciful than He otherwise would be ; but because
man needed it, to bring him into closer communion
with his heavenly Father, imbue him with the Holy
Spirit, and thereby render him like God in disposi-
tion, conduct, and character. This being the case,
it necessarily follows that no devout exercises or

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 73

formalities which fail to produce these results are of
any absolute worth to God or man. True piety
therefore, however manifested, is not so much a reli-
gious <?;/</ as a means to an end, as God's method of
rendering His creatures just, merciful, holy, and
happy in themselves and among themselves, as He
is happy in Himself and towards all His offspring.
Consequently the genuine Gospel teaches us to be
pious in order that we may be righteously moral, to
Jove God that we may love our fellow creatures as
He does, and that we may love His laws and obey
them. To this end we are to worship ; to pray, to
sing, to use all the formalities of devotion as well as
all religious privileges whatsoever.

But if people's theological conceptions are not
such as Christ taught ; if, instead of regarding God
as the all-perfect Father, they consider Him an
Almighty Sovereign, seeking His own glory rather
than the welfare of the creatures He has made: if
they deem Him a stern, jealous, vindictive despot,
what then 1 Then, of course, to the extent of such
false conceptions they will serve Him more from
selfish fear than from filial love, and their piety will
consist chiefly in sacrifices, offerings, and oblations
designed to appease His wrath and win His approving
favor, with little regard to the higher moralities of life
or to philanthropic service of mankind. I pointed out
the deleterious and pernicious influence of false views
of God, His character and government, in the first
volume of this work. In studying the history of
Christianity from the beginning we find that the cor-
ruption of primitive Christian piety followed close

74 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

upon the footsteps of theological corruption, and
' kept even pace with it. For, despite all the declama-
tion heard against theology and in praise of a creed-
less religion, the generality of mankind have always
reflected in a marked degree their predominant theo-
logical beliefs in their actual piety and morality,
either commendably or deplorably. Not because
they reason themselves into this course by logical
processes, for only a few do this ; but because their
honest convictions regarding divine realities create a
penetrating, life-imparting atmosphere, wherein their
souls expand or contract, like the quicksilver of a
thermometer in the variable temperature of surround-
ing air. In the natural order and eternal fitness of
things it must forever be so.

Now what I desire to do in this discourse is to
exhibit that gross corruption of primitive Christian
piety which, besides vitiating it in other respects, has
divorced it from and exalted it above pure ethics
Christian morality. This mischievous work began a
century at least before its culmination in the union
of church and state under the emperor Constantine.
After that malign event, the waters of iniquity, for a
long time accumulating, became an overwhelming
flood, swelling and rolling onward with augmented
force and turbidity down to the sixteenth century,
when the evil reached its utmost height. It was
then brought to bay and partially assuaged, but all
Christendom is still sadly blotched with the plague-
spots of its contagious defilement This defection
accompanied and aggravated the corruptions which
took place with reference to religious worship, rites,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 75

and ordinances already considered. As these became
Judaized and heathenized shrouded in mystery and
awe-inspiring sanctity, or clothed in the garb of
superstition, devotees became correspondingly regard-
less of the claims of justice, truth, mercy, purity,
and charity, the common virtues of life, the vital
elements of character, the indefeasible requirements
of the law of righteousness As we turn the pages of
history, and especially of ecclesiastical history, we are
struck and shocked by the dark developments in this
particular which are there revealed A few of the
more important features of the case are worthy of
notice.

i. We behold in. looking over the annals of the
Christian church the rise and growing supremacy of
an ambitious, worldly-minded, unscrupulous clerical
hierarchy at the head of religious affairs, wrangling,,
intriguing, contending within its own limits, and
doing all manner of reprehensible things for the sake
of rank, power, and self-aggrandizement, with little
or no regard to the simplest precepts and duties of
the Gospel of Christ. Many of those involved were,
in fact, shamefully dissolute and immoral personally,
yet were they officially consecrated and pious, serv-
ing in all the high places of the church. They pro-
fessed the Christian faith, they conducted the
ceremonies of worship, they were punctilious in the
observance of a multitude of ritualistic formalities,
going through them all with most pious air and with
solemn regularity and exactitude. They moreover
taught the laity to omit no rite, service, or penance,
declared to be necessary to keep their dread accounts

76 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

square with God, and retain a balance in their favor
on the pages of the divine ledger. If they failed in
that regard were remiss in the ceremonials of
religion, and so turned the balance to the other side,
bringing themselves under condemnation, woe be unto
them ! Endless damnation or at least the fearful
pains of purgatory awaited their souls. If by due
exercises of piety or ritualistic performances they
could keep their heavenly ledger right, after the
fashion systematically taught them, morality, a
rightly ordered life, would be of very little
account and the lack of these would incur no serious
loss.

2. Again we see in reading ecclesiastical history
a long succession of abominable cruelties and perse-
cutions perpetrated against Jews, Mohammedans,
pagans, heretics, etc., all in the name of Christ
though all utterly contrary to his spirit, precepts, and
example. The record is dark and hideous with this
sort of iniquity abounding in tales of violence
and reeking with human gore. Nevertheless, temples
multiplied and ill-gotten wealth garnished them,
while solemn assemblies, feasts, fasts, processions,
and a long list of pompous demonstrations, were
their concomitants. Meantime, poor, down-trodden
humanity, groaned beneath the burdens imposed
upon it or suffered and died in neglect and despair,
save as it sometimes found relief from alms gathered
and bestowed with almost as much pretension and
display as attended the worship of God, the adora-
tion of saints and angels, or the observance of other
formalities of religious devotion and zeal.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 7T

3. A more careful scrutiny of this kind of cor-
ruption of the long-prevailing divorce between-
piety, or the profession and show of piety, and moral-
ity, will disclose the reproachful fact that for a long
time what have been properly denominated pious-
frauds were sanctioned, or at least tolerated and
allowed, as justifiable means of strengthening the
priesthood, of gaining converts, and of promoting
the growth and glory of the church. False gospels,
false legends, false miracles, false relics of saints,
and manifold other forms of deception and trickery
prevailed to a wide extent for several centuries
The doctrine which Paul so openly condemned, that
we may "do evil that good may come, 7 * or in a new
version, " the end sanctifies the means/' was boldly
taught and defended by learned casuists and ecclesi-
astics of high position and repute. This doctrine,
which subverts all pure ethics, or, at least, the-
immorality it represents, has by no means gone out
of fashion, even among religious teachers and people-
who verbally denounce and disown it. But all pious
fraud, falsehood, hypocrisy, deceit, is wicked and
abominable, when viewed in the light of New-
Testament Christianity. And no show of piety, nor
pretence of good to be accomplished, can justify or
excuse, much less atone for, any such violation of
the first principles of truth and honesty, as between
man and his fellow man ; as between the teachers
and ministers of religion, under whatever name, and
the people at large

4. Another form of the particular evil under
notice may be seen in the long-time prevailing and

78 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

still recognized doctrine of absolution, or remission
of sins as it was sometimes termed According to
this doctrine a wrong-doer could receive discharge
from his guilt and escape the consequences of his
iniquity by making confession to a priest, by submit-
ting to some prescribed form of penance, or by mak-
ing sufficient contribution to the church treasury. The
same immunity could be gained for those who had
died impenitent and were suffering the tortures of
purgatorial fire, by the purchase of masses in their
behalf on the part of friends, and premediated iniqui-
ties could be condoned beforehand and committed
without incurring guilt or the divine condemnation,
by procuring indulgences, as they were termed, or
authorized permits at certain stipulated prices, the
proceeds of which were devoted to such uses of a
religious character as the ecclesiastical dignitaries
might decide. It was from this source that money
was obtained by which the magnificent St. Peter's
Church at Rome, costing fifty millions of dollars,
was built. What a vast amount of vice, crime, and
horrible wickedness has been ostensibly cancelled
and its record erased from God's great book of judg-
ment by these priestly devices and performances,
not one of which has any warrant from the primitive
testimonies of Christ and his appointed ministers.
How many millions of people have had their moral
sense perverted and their habitual sinful inclinations
confirmed and strengthened, often to the utmost, by
the delusive assuranc e of those whom they recognized
and trusted as faithful interpreters and heralds of
the Christian Gospel, that confession, penance,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 79

masses, indulgences, or the payment of money for
any purpose, could and would absolve them from
guilt and merited punishment could and would
annul and set aside the divine law of retributive
justice, which teaches that "whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap" The famous St.
Bernard, the foremost champion of the second great
crusade to recover Palestine from the Mussulmans
in the middle ages, in enlisting recruits, said, " God
condescends to invite to His service, murderers, rob-
bers, adulterers, perjurers, and those sunk in other
crimes ; and whosoever falls in this cause shall secure
pardon for the sins which he has never confessed
with a contrite heart." Thus did this notable and
pious prelate, canonized as saint of the first rank,
make an act of assumed service of God, itself reek-
ing with blood, an atonement for the grossest of
iniquities, thereby not only trampling under foot the
plain precepts of the Gospel of Christ but juggling
with the eternal principles of moral order in the uni-
verse of souls. Much after the same fashion do
professed ministers of Christ and doctors of theol-
ogy now-a-days promise military characters of every
grade and type, however gross their personal immor-
alities, immunity from the consequences of those
immoralities and a ready entrance into the celestial
abodes, on the sole ground that they have been patri-
otic and brave soldiers in some righteous war (and
all wars are righteous in the eyes of those who inaugu-
rate and wage them) because they have been
skillful and expert in the art of human slaughter

80 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in increasing orphanage and widowhood in the world
and multiplying the miseries of mankind !

5. As another illustration of the still existing prac-
tice of divorcing piety from morality and making
certain religious exercises or acts take the place of
righteousness in human life, I have but to call atten-
tion to the fact that rich sinners in these times are
often led by their spiritual teachers and guides to
think that, by liberally endowing their church, found-
ing religious institutions, giving freely to the cause
of missions, or leaving large sums of money to be
expended for masses to be said in order to deliver
their souls from purgatory, they cancel the guilt of a
life of persistent wickedness and find acceptance
with the great Judge of all the earth The utter
folly, nay, the impiety of all these notions is most
palpable to an enlightened and spiritualized mind.
That God can be moved to mercy and grace by any
sort of sacerdotal mediations, sacrifices, or acts
performed in the name of religion ; that the legiti-
mate consequences of iniquity can be set aside or
escaped by any sort of pietistic legerdemain, thus
relieving one of the indispensable necessity of keep-
ing the divine commandments, of "doing justly,
loving mercy, and walking humbly with God," is one
of the most glaring, mischievous, demoralizing forms
of that corruption of the primitive Christian piety
which has characterized the nominal church of
Christ from the early centuries of our era unto the
present day.

6. Finally, passing over many minor specifica-
tions which might be made in illustration of the fact

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 81

that there has been a great and deplorable lapse
from the original type of piety among Christian
believers in its relation to morality, I s would call
attention briefly to the long-continued complicity of
the Church with the civil governments of the world
and their unchristian machinery to those institu-
tions, laws, methods, customs, and practices which
are in opposition to the principles and spirit of the
Gospel. Pure Primitive Christianity recognized
worldly governments as natural and necessary for
mankind on the low moral plane of life occupied by
people at large, and as ordained of God in His gen-
eral providence to maintain a certain degree of civil
and social order and prevent worse conditions ; to be
respected for whatever of good they might accom-
plish, and to be obeyed m respect to their demands
and requirements to the extent of submission to
their authority, even when unjust and tyrannical,
without physical resistance except in the passive
form of martyrdom for righteousness* sake. But at
the same time Christians were conscientiously pre-
cluded from voluntarily entering into worldly govern-
ments, in their then existing form and character,
either as officers of administration or responsible
co-governing constituents and participants. And for
these reasons: I. Because they had professedly
risen to a higher moral plane, entered a kingdom not
of this world, and pledged an unreserved allegiance
to Christ, the head of that kingdom. 2. Because
the kingdom of Christ required that its subjects
should never kill, hate, injure, or harm any human
being, even the worst of offenders and enemies i

82 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIA.NITT

never do evil that good might come, never sanction
idolatry, tyranny, persecution, war, inhumanity of
any sort, or any deliberate transgression of the two
great commandments requiring love to God and all
mankind; in fine, never be "of this world" in
any respect contrary to the precepts, spirit, and
example of their Lord and Master. 3. Because the
governments of the world were fashioned and admin-
istered without regard to these vital and imperative
considerations, mainly on the basis of selfish policy
and political expediency suited to the moral status of
the people over whom, they exercised authority ;
because they enacted many unrighteous laws, estab-
lished and perpetuated many vicious customs and
practices, and were maintained and operated in the
last resort by an appeal to injurious and deadly force,
either penal or warlike. 4. Because these govern-
ments exacted unconditional allegiance to their suprem-
acy in respect to what was evil and unchristian in
them as well as to what was good and right, making
no provision for a higher allegiance to Christ, and so
rendering it impossible for conscientious followers
of Christ to render them the unreserved fealty and
support they demanded. Such being the case, they
must either be disloyal to their Lord or stand out-
side of all civil governments, so far as involved
voluntary acknowledgment of their moral suprem-
acy, responsibility for their unjust administration,
and above all complicity with what was in them con-
trary to the spirit and principles of their holy reli-
gion. There was therefore no alternative for them
in good conscience but to stand outside. This they

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 83

could do while cherishing a profound respect for the
providential ordination and use of these governments,
without being dechristianized by them. For about
two centuries this was the sublime, impregnable atti-
tude almost unanimously maintained by the Christian
church. Then there came a marked degeneracy in
this regard, which culminated in the calamitous union
of church and state under Constantine in the fourth
century, already mentioned.

From that time forth down through the ages only
a scattered few professing Christians adhered to the
primitive standard of non-interference with matters
of civil government and most of these did so but
imperfectly. The overwhelming majority of clergy
and laity entered actively into the manipulation
and conduct of political affairs, gaining control of
the scepter, the purse, and the sword, wherever they
could, and employing them as they pleased with
little or no deference to the high morality or pre-
scriptive duties of the New Testament. Yet they
claimed all the while to act in the name of Christ
and for the promotion of his cause and kingdom, but
practically to the betrayal of both. They kept up a
most costly and magnificent show of religious devo-
tion and zeal, but turned their backs upon many of
the cardinal features of pure and undefiled religion
as taught and exemplified by the Master, instituting
and using without scruple the carnal instrumentali-
ties of authority and power which he distinctively
forbade. Piety was thus divorced from morality, as
in other ways, and Christendom in its governmental
and national aspects became the wide theater not

84 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

only of wrangling, contention, chicanery, and all
sorts of demagogueism, but of persecution, slavery,
cruelty, violence, and wholesale slaughter. Infinite
pains have been taken among all so-called Christian
nations to propitiate God and make sure of heaven
in a future state by an unnumbered list of pietistic
contrivances, and contending sects have vied with
each other in maintaining a magnificent array and
display of religious establishments and exercises,
but the great duties growing out of the law of love
to God and man the duties of philanthropy,
charity, and solid morality have been during the
advancing centuries most egregriously neglected in
governmental concerns, and often utterly forgotten
and trampled in the dust

The light of returning morn has been increasing
for the past few hundred years and especially for
several of the later decades and is revealing many
still existing hideous perversions of Primitive Chris-
tianity unsuspected as yet by any considerable por-
tion of the church. It is astonishing to think that
with all the boasted progress of science and civiliza-
tion, with all the boasted progress in religious con-
ceptions and ideals, the nations of Christendom
constitute today the most belligerant and warlike
portions of the earth. They enlist more soldiers,
maintain mightier armies, build more and stronger
navies, fortifications, and arsenals, invent more effec-
tive machineries for human slaughter, devastate more
territory, destroy more property, sacifice more lives,
and cause more misery and woe by military opera-
tions than the other entire two-thirds of the human

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 85

race all heathen tribes and people combined.
And all or nearly all within their own borders in
armed conflicts and deadly encounters among them-
selves : Christian meeting Christian in mortal combat,
each eager to shed the blood of the other and baptize
the earth with Christian gore.

And yet, even now, not one professed Christian in
a hundred, perhaps not one in a thousand, raises a
voice of protest against this " worst vestige of bar-
barism/' as Channing called it, or seems to think for
a moment that it is in any way unchristian. The
vast majority of church members pray, exhort, sing
Te Deums, etc., against each other's government and
in behalf of their own ; they offer the oblations of
thanksgiving to God and shout hosannas to His
name over battles fought and victories won, as if the
most selfish, jealous, cruel, blood-stained patriotism,
as it is termed, were the greatest of all virtues, the
sublimest of Christian duties. At the same time
the long dark train of vices and evils which neces-
sarily accompany and follow war are either winked at
or sentimentally lamented, while the soldier, espec-
ially if he be skilful and successful in slaughtering
his fellow-men, is canonized by all departments of
the church as a veritable saint, fit for a heavenly
mansion, though his private character be reeking
with iniquity and moral defilement. Going back to
the days of Constantine and marking the fall of the
Roman Empire which went down in blood, we may
grope our way through the dark ages to the time of
the Reformation and thence to the present moment,
noting what hecatombs of human beings have

86 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

been offered as sacrifices to Moloch, " the fiercest of
fallen spirits," on the field of battle, and what oceans
of human blood have been shed by man's fratricidal
hand, and then pause to soberly ask, What has the
great Christian Church been doing all this time ? It
has in large part been acting as priestly confessor to
the state, to sanctify its iniquities and grant absolu-
tion to its sins; especially to justify and consecrate
the horrid barbarities of the gigantic war system of
the world. With few honorable exceptions, it has
been aiding, abetting, stimulating, and often direct-
ing on one side or the other, or on both sides, this
long-drawn-out retinue of human butchery. Did
Christ and his Apostles set the example for such
conduct? Did they teach such a blood-shedding
religion ? Did they ever suggest or countenance
such a divorce between piety and morality; such
corruption of true piety, such perversion of pure
morality? Never, in the least degree, to the
smallest extent. And whoever would be a faithful
follower of the great Teacher, his disciple in spirit
and in truth, must disown, renounce, and abjure all
such acts of disloyalty to him at once and forever.

DISCOURSE VII.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

tk Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even
so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree
brmgeth forth evil fruit Wherefore by their fruits shall ye
know them." Matt. vii. 16, 17, 20.

Of Piety, the first general branch of Personal
Righteousness to the consideration of which this
volume is devoted, I have treated amply in the six-
preceding discourses. I now proceed to take up the
second branch of the same subject, Morality.
Piety I have defined as that department of Personal
Righteousness in man which concerns him chiefly
and more especially in his relation to God. Morality
is that department which concerns him chiefly and
more especially in his relation to man ; that is, sub-
jectively to himself, and objectively to fellow human
beings ; perhaps to beings higher and lower than
himself in the vast realm of universal life. The
connection between piety and morality is really so
intimate that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
the two from each other. The same is true of the
minor divisions of both. Yet I hope to make such
distinctions as the common understanding can readily
apprehend, acknowledge, and make available for
practical use. Before proceeding to speak of the

88 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

cardinal elements or qualities which constitute what
I term pure, primitive Christian morality, I beg
leave to offer a few preliminary observations.

i. Whatever may be the vital importance and
necessity of true piety those of true morality are, if
possible, still greater: certainly in this present human
world. Mainly because the chief use of piety is to
superintend, promote, and preserve morality, which
more directly and positively affects human welfare
and happiness on the earth. In this view, piety,
though in itself a high attainment and source of joy,
is not so much an end of being as a means to an
ulterior end the generation of virtuous endeavor
and development of a lofty type of character. If in
any instance it fails to produce this result, it is com-
paratively worthless ; since God does not in any
sense need it, and man in such a case would not be
essentially benefited by it This is not the popular
religious estimate of piety and morality respectively,
inasmuch as this estimate makes much of piety and
little of morality. It is based on the assumption that
God has an exclusive glory apart from the good of
His creatures; that such glory can and must be
augmented or promoted by certain rites and cere-
monies of worship in order to secure divine favor ;
and that unless these are observed and rendered in
due form and season, men will incur the inexorable
wrath of God and be doomed to endless punishment,
or, in milder terms, to hopeless destruction. But
this assumption I have discarded, as utterly without
foundation and radically repugnant to the teachings
of Christ, and have declared that God is from and to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 89

all eternity the unchangeable friend of all His moral
offspring, whether they be good or bad, whether they
love, honor, and serve Him in all good conscience, or
vainly and wickedly ignore or deny His existence and
forsake the way of His commandments; and that
His laws and judgments, His favors and mercies, all
spring from His eternal and inalienable goodness.
Consequently the piety and morality He requires of
His responsible creatures must have their intrinsic
worth solely in their fitness to promote and insure
the nurture and growth in such creatures of all the
higher and diviner attributes of their natures and
therewith their highest well-being in all the relations
which they sustain to Him, to one another, and to
the universe. He requires true piety for the sake of
inducing and securing true morality, and true moral-
ity for the sake of the order, harmony, mutual
helpfulness, and the enduring happiness of His
creation, a consummation which would otherwise be
impossible.

2. The morality of Christianity is the final test
of its absolute divine excellence over that of all
other religions and philosophies. Miracles, however
well authenticated, genuine, and wonderful, are not the
final and all-sufficient test of truth or of any system
of faith. Historic records are not. Ecclesiastical
dicta or institutions are not. Nothing but the con-
sent and approval of an enlightened judgment and
all the nobler qualities of the soul reinforced by
beneficent and happy results in character and life,
can be accepted as satisfactory proofs and grounds
of belief in matters of this sort. The ultimate

90 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

proof is, "The tree is known by its fruit/' In this
way and only in this way must it be fairly demon-
strated that Jesus of Nazareth taught and exem-
plified a higher, truer morality than is embodied
in any other ethical system known to our world-
This morality, the primitive Christian morality, must
be shown to embrace all the essential virtues to be
found in any and every other system, whether of
faith or philosophy, and also to exclude all their radi-
cal defects and vices whether of precept, of funda-
mental principle, or of required duties in practical
life. Nor is this enough. It must be shown to
enjoin virtues and insist on principles of action and
courses of conduct more unselfish, disinterested, and
benevolent ; more pure, holy, and God-like than are
elsewhere declared and urged upon human attention,
belief, and practice. And furthermore, it must be
shown that this Primitive Christianity, when clearly
understood and given the mastery of the hearts and
lives of men, does actually produce a higher type of
character, a nobler order of manhood and woman-
hood, a diviner humanity, than proceeds from any and
all other forms of faith or philosophy that have
ever been submitted for consideration and acceptance
to the intelligent, moral judgment of mankind. This
is the fruit which tests and determines the quality
and value of this tree.

And if all this cannot be fairly shown and demon-
strated, what then ? What but that Christianity is
only one among many rival religions or philosophical
systems, on about the same moral level, perhaps a
little higher in some respects, perhaps a little lower

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 91

in others, competing with the rest for acknowledg-
ment and supremacy, but yet like them an imperfect
system, which can be, ought to be, and must be
transcended and cast forever away by the progress of
the race in some coming generation of the world's
history. As for me, I can admit nothing of the sort.
I shall contend that the pure Christian morality has
in it all the good without any of the evil contained
in the other ethical systems of the world, and also
that it transcends them all in its highest required
virtues and duties. Therefore, as thus tested, the
genuine Christianity of Christ is to my mind the one
divinely excellent and absolute religion. Neverthe-
less, if any other can be fairly shown to present to
the enlightened judgment of mankind a positively
and demonstrably higher morality than Christ taught
and exemplified, then I will yield my reverence for
the religion of the Gospel and transfer it to the
more deserving and defensible claimant. But

3. In trying this case I shall insist on truth,
justice, and impartiality on perfect candor and
fairness. And first I shall demand that the original,
pure Christianity of Christ shall be tried, and not
some degenerate form of religion which has sprung
up in later times and been masquerading before the
world under Christ's sacred name. Next, I shall
demand that the Scriptures of the New Testament
shall be the authority chiefly relied upon to settle
questions of fact and doctrine in the case and not
traditions nor metaphysical inferences still less
modern theological and ethical deductions or opinions.
And I must especially insist that the obvious, unso-

92 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

phisticated, and sublime teachings of Christ, as
learned from the record, fairly interpreted and under-
stood, shall be accepted as final and unquestionable
not be nullified, perverted, or transformed by
human ignorance, superstition, prejudice, casuistry,
or assumption. These to me are indispensable pre-
requisites to a trustworthy proceedure in such an
examination as I have undertaken.

Suppose a class of opponents to the claim I am
making should come forward and contend that they
cared nothing for the type of Christianity set forth
in the New Testament Scriptures, thus ignoring the
most authentic record that exists of the utterances of
Christ and his Apostles and of their example, but
should assume that and that only to be Christianity
which the church during the last fifteen centuries has
claimed and taught to be such, would that be just,
truthful, and fair ? Not in my judgment. Nor would
I trifle with the subject on such an issue. Suppose
again that another class should say "The New Tes-
tament is well enough in its place, but there are im-
portant traditions that have come down from Jesus
and the chosen promulgators of his Gospel and been
carefully preserved by their anointed successors in
the church which he founded and of which St. Peter
was the chief corner-stone, and these traditions are
of equal importance and credibility with the testi-
monies of the written record ; they greatly modify
that record and constitute no inconsiderable portion
of the evidence to be examined and weighed in an
investigation relating to the primary foundations of
Christian faith and practice relating to facts and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 93

doctrines connected with the founding of our reli-
gion." What proof could they give me that their
traditions are reliable and worthy of consideration ?
Nothing better than their own assertions and those
of their predecessors of past generations, most of
them lost utterly in the glimmering uncertainty of
the centuries that have come and gone since the age
of the Apostles. I can neither in reason nor in
good conscience yield to any such assumptions.
And then, in addition to the two supposed classes of
casuists referred to, there really appears a motley
troop of theologians, metaphysicians, jurists, states-
men, politicians, warriors, merchants, bankers, and
others living on the common plane of worldly, self-
seeking expediency and attainment, all claiming to
be Christians and all professing to be governed by
what they understand to be New Testament moral-
ity ; but they must be allowed to interpret and apply
the principles and precepts of the Gospel after their
own fashion in such a way as to justify themselves
in their own chosen positions and pursuits; after
the law of a carnal commandment and not after
the power of an endless life ; that is, not after the
eternal commandment of God. By which they really
mean that the principles, maxims, habits, customs,
fashions, and usages of society, as at present consti-
tuted and operating, shall be allowed the sanction
of Christ's teaching, even though in important and
vital respects they may be practically in open hostil-
ity to it. They hold nominally to Christianity and
its holy principles and precepts, but it is as they
understand them. They understand them in a sense

94 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

not conformed to the conclusions of sound exegesis
and just criticism but in a sense accommodated to
their own personal convenience, taste, inclination, or
ambition, and thus make them of little or no reform-
atory, uplifting, saving effect; thus rob them of
their distinctive excellence and divinely redeeming
power. I consent to no strategy of this sort. Let
us first of all things beside honestly consider and
fairly ascertain what Christ himself meant to require
in his testimonies concerning truth and duty, how-
ever they agree with or differ from the dominant
theories and practices of this world. Then let us be
fully persuaded in our own minds whether the right-
eousness he teaches, illustrates, and enjoins upon
those who enroll themselves as his disciples and bear
his name is absolutely divine and perfect,, worthy of
hearty acceptation, or merely human, imperfect, and
of doubtful truth and utility. If the former let us
reverently acknowledge it, bow to it, receive it into
good and honest hearts, and endeavor to exemplify it
in thought and conduct; strive to approximate it in
character and in life. If the latter, Christ must, of
course, in our judgment, take rank with other emi-
nent religionists that from time to time have
appeared in the world and his morality with the
ethical theories which they have devised and offered
to the intelligent consideration and moral judgment
of mankind. Then, as some of our pretentious pro
gressive prophets openly tell us, we must each and
all be our own Christs and pick our moral pathway
as best we can through the wilderness of human
speculation, hypothesis, and experiment. For one I

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 95

choose to follow, not unthinkingly and blindly but
intelligently and conscientiously, The Christ, as I
find him revealed and manifested in the man of
Nazareth.

4. Another thing I shall insist on in this investi-
gation. It is that in setting forth and magnifying
what I hold to be the morality of the Gospel, I do
not in any wise or to the smallest extent ignore or
invalidate what the sometimes abused term Christian
regeneration stands for in religious literature, or
any of the great experimental spiritual verities of
the Christian life. "0, you take it for granted,"
some zealot of a narrow pietism might be inclined to
say by way of objecting to my views, "that what
you call pure morality, good conduct, righteousness,
constitutes the primal excellence of religion, and
that every human being can at once proceed to
practice all the virtues which the New Testament
commends and enjoins after the manner of outward
conformity to a prescribed set of rules, without any
such internal, subjective exercise or experience as
is represented by the terms faith, repentance,
reconciliation to God without what is called, in
religious phraseology, regeneration, growth in grace
and in the knowledge of God/* I do, indeed, main-
tain that pure morality is the crowning excellence of
the true Christian religion, and that no religion has
any intrinsic value or imperative claim upon the
souls of men which does not require absolutely and
unequivocally that those receiving it and professing
to represent it before God and man shall be emi-
nently moral ; that is, shall bring forth good fruit in

96 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

their common everyday life. But at the same time I
deny the charge, open or implied, of ignoring or dis-
paraging spiritual regeneration, much more of trifling
with or scoffing at it. I would rather carefully
affirm not only its importance but its necessity I
am not so foolish, nor am I so much a stranger to
the inward processes by which a soul enslaved to
selfish and sinful inclinations, passions, habits, and
practices, breaks away from its thraldom and rises
into an enjoyment of the liberty wherewith Christ
maketh free, as to suppose that evil-doers can put
away their iniquity and guilt and bring forth the
blessed fruits of Christian righteousness, whether of
piety or morality, without faith in the being and
infinite goodness of God, sincere sorrow for all
wrong done or contemplated, and a sense of recon-
ciliation with Him against whom they have offended
and by whose helping strength and grace they are to
come off conquerors over all their spiritual foes. If
they have no confidence in the heavenly Father's
existence, perfections, and gracious helpfulness; no
conviction of wrong thought and conduct, and no pro-
found regret for the same ; no heartfelt desire to
lead a better life; no cheering assurance that God
accepts them as His wayward but penitent children,
ready to strive henceforth with His vouchsafed aid
to bring forth fruits unto holiness, then I have no
reason to expect anything but that they will continue
in sin continue to be carnally-minded, foolish,
wicked, and miserable in various degrees ; and thus
continuing, be rendered incapable, not by divine
decree nor by native moral inability, but by their

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 97

own indisposition, spiritual insensibility, lack of
appreciation and aspiration, of entering into the
experiences of the higher and better life, incapa-
ble of practicing in any effectual way the pure moral-
ity of the primitive Christian faith. Nevertheless, I
preach that morality to them, and declare rny testi-
mony faithfully and hopefully, whether they will
hear or forbear, because I am persuaded that in
their inmost souls the Holy Spirit of God, which is
ever going forth seeking to save the lost, will sooner
or later make them feel somewhat its excellence,
beauty, and power, in spite of their sinfulness ; and
also because I believe and feel that the truth I am
commissioned to present to them will become in due
time \vithin them the seed of reformation, the
power of a renewed and ever-ascending life.

But here comes the significant question ; Of what
real worth or use is any faith, penitence, reconcilia-
tion or regenerative influence or discipline, which
does not ripen into fruits of holy obedience to the
divine law ; into active, steadfast, personal righteous-
ness ; into pure Christ-like morality ? None what-
ever. For this is the grand purpose and end unto
which all faith, repentance, and regenerative proc-
esses must come, as the proof and assurance of
their worth and validity. And I consequently treat
the whole subject under notice accordingly; reject-
ing all notions which assume or imply that there is
or can be, under the divine economy as represented
by Christ, any salvation without personal righteous-
ness ; any redeeming exercise, quality, or attitude of
the mind and heart which does not deliver men fron\

98 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

both the love and commission of sin and establish
them in the opposite the love and practice of holi-
ness. By its fruits must the tree be known. Pure
morality, a lofty type of character, a practical Chris-
tian life, is the only conclusive demonstration of true
faith, genuine repentance, real regeneration.

5 One other observation before I close. Some
people object to holding up so high a standard of
duty and righteousness and insisting upon it so
uncompromisingly on the ground that by doing so it
is implied that it is immediately practicable by
human beings in their present state of development,
and that just allowance is not made for the weakness
and imperfection of those who may not attain td
perfect obedience or conformity to it. God forbid.
I know too well the limitations that hedge men in
and that prevent them from realizing even their own
best ideals, both by sad experience and general
observation. But I also know that helping agencies
are at hand to supplement mortal imfirmity and aid
the aspiring, struggling soul in its endeavors to gain
a higher and better life for itself and for the world.
I know that while it is in a certain important sense
true that we are to " work out our own salvation with
fear and trembling," it is at the same time God who
"worketh in us both to will and do of his own good
pleasure." He guarantees His own divine strength
to enable all devout and earnest souls to perform the
duties He requires at their hands; as it is written,
" My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is
made perfect in thy weakness." 2 Cor. xii. 9. Our
heavenly Father who lays upon us the sacred burden

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 99

of personal responsibility with all it involves of con-
secration to His service and of fidelity to the great
trusts of life, is not a hard and cruel task-master,
holding us rigidly to the performance of duties too
onerous for our mortal ability to perform, but the
most just, considerate, and gracious of all beings.
He knows, indeed, that no one of us can rise to the
fulfillment of His benign and glorious purpose con-
cerning us and be happy without obedience to His
holy law of righteousness He therefore demands
perfect obedience as the condition and pledge of the
highest possible attainment and of perfect bliss.
But he also "knoweth our frame, he remembereth we
are dust." He knoweth our frailty and our need of
His wisely and beneficently vouchsafed help. It is
for this reason that He exhorts and counsels us to
draw near to Him that He may draw near to us, in
the assurance that we may find in Him "the grace to
help in time of need. 1 ' Let us do the best we can
for ourselves in the line of His commandments, and
trust Him for the rest.

And as to making allowance for imperfection and
short-comings, let us remember that inasmuch as
God does this for us we are thereby placed under
solemn obligations to do it for one another. Not,
however, by ever lowering the moral standard set
up by Christ not by calling evil good and wrong
right not by falsification or flattery but only by
steadfast adherence to what is eternally true and
just and immutably righteous, tempered by that
merciful charity which without harsh accusation or
vindictive judgment, says, "Go and sin no more";

100 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

"Try again"; "Come up higher." Thus will the
pure morality of the Christian Gospel be uncomprom-
isingly maintained and glorified in divine union
with the most thoughtful, tender, forgiving charity ;
thus will "mercy and truth meet together and right-
eousness and peace will kiss each other " ; and in so
far as man is thereby truly blest, God will be corre-
spondingly glorified.

DISCOURSE VIII.

(XV THE FUNDAMENTAL VIRTUE OF HUMILITY.

u At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying.
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? And Jesus
called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them ;
and said, Verily I say unto you. Except ye be converted and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this
little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.* 1
Matt, xviii. 1-4.

My last discourse was preparatory to the considera-
tion in detail of the pure morality of Primitive Chris-
tianity. There are several fundamental virtues and
certain special ones of signal importance inculcated
and emphasized by the great Teacher of our holy reli-
gion, each of which requires careful and adequate
exposition, before proceeding to speak of the errors
and abuses which, after a brief period, come in to
degrade and vitiate this department of Christian
duty and righteousness. It seems to be in logical
order to begin with Humility,

" that low sweet root,
From which all heavenly virtues shoot " ;

which lies at the very basis of all excellence and is
the primary condition of all growth in the things of

102 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the divine life. It is an essential element of piety
no less than of morality ; but we are now to treat of
it in its relation to the latter, and as an indispensable
constituent of the ethics of the Gospel of Christ.
No one can read the sayings of Jesus or study the
record of his ministry upon the earth, without seeing
that humility is the chief corner-stone of that per-
sonal righteousness which pre-eminently distinguishes
the religion which he lived, suffered, and died to
establish in the minds and hearts of men. And his
Apostles bear testimony accordingly, of which an
ample array of texts could be adduced were it
deemed necessary. But what is humility?

i. It is the moral opposite of pride, and can be
the more easily and clearly apprehended when put in
contrast with that unhallowed sentiment, impulse, or
passion. Pride is inordinate self-esteem. Humility
is just self-esteem. Whoever estimates himself in
any respect above what he really is, beyond his
actual merit, all things considered, is proud. He
who estimates himself truthfully, according to his
exact abilities, attainments, and deserts, all things
considered, is humble. There is a righteous self-
esteem, self-appreciation, self-respect, which has no
pride in it; which is really virtuous and which is
absolutely necessary to all true nobility of character.
There is a tameness, slavishness, cowardliness, base-
ness, meanness of soul, sometimes mistaken for
humility, which has no true humility in it; which
is really vicious ; and which pre-disposes to all that
is morally abhorrent in character. We should be
very careful not to confound just self-esteem with

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 103

pride, nor baseness of spirit with humility. The
pure primitive Christian morality excludes and for-
bids all such confusion. It requires every person to
estimate him or herself at actual worth ; neither above
nor below when judged by the Christian standard.
The great danger in this matter is over-estimation
and the common vice is pride. Hence the manifold
warnings and injunctions of Scripture and high
moralists against these.

2. How can we clearly understand and determine
our real worth ? It is very difficult to do so per-
fectly. But we can do it proximately by sober
thought and reflection. "Know thyself*' is the dic-
tate alike of both the highest philosophy and the
highest religion. For in knowing ourselves we not
only find out what we really are and what we are not,
but we learn also our relationship to other beings ;
how far we are dependent on them, what we owe
them, and how we ought to treat them. We soon
come to know that we are not infinite but very finite ;
not self-existent but created ; not sure of life, but
subject to death ; not from all eternity, but of yester-
day ; not infallibly wise, but ignorant and foolish in
many respects ; not immaculate and holy, but sinful ;
not all-powerful, but, at best, weak and feeble ; not
g'ods, but men frail and imperfect human beings.
We find our fellow-creatures the wide world over
much like ourselves, akin to us by nature, partakers
with us in good and evil, more or less ; in fine, mem-
bers of the same common family ; that they must be
the products of the same creative power the off-
spring of the same divine Parent ; that they are

104 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

dependent on us and we on them for much of happi-
ness ; that they can harm us and we them in a
thousand ways ; that it is best for us and for them
to be friends and to treat each other in a friendly
way. Continuing our inquiries we at length learn
that the lower orders of creation the animal world
and inanimate things, must be used wisely as not
abusing them. Thus we gain a knowledge not only
of ourselves but of o-ur Maker and our fellow-beings ;
of our duty and of true religion. And the more we
learn of all these things, the more nearly do we esti-
mate ourselves at our real worth ; the more do we
renounce pride and become clothed in the raiment
of true humility. Perfection in this as in every
other virtue, or pre-eminence even, is of slow growth
and a long sought attainment. But we may and
must have a modicum at least of this quality to
begin our upward career with, or we cannot take the
first steps therein, much less enter heaven. And
why not ? Because,

3. We shall be too conceited to receive instruc-
tion in the truths of the divine kingdom, too
self-righteous to feel the need of repentance and
reformation, too haughty to confess our follies and
sins, even if convinced of them, and too proud
and self-sufficient to obey rightful authority, eveft
the authority of God. This is why we cannot enter
into the kingdom of heaven, as Jesus said, without
becoming as little children ; without having the con-
fiding, docile, teachable, childlike spirit. Wanting
that spirit we will not be instructed, will not seek to
mend our ways and better our lives, will not acknowl-

AND ITS CORRUPTION'S. 105

edge our transgression and our guilt, will not be
governed by Him whose right it is to rule over us,
though it be for our highest and most enduring
good. We are too well satisfied with ourselves, too
vain-glorious, to become wiser and better, Recog-
nizing no obligations to grow in grace and in the
knowledge of God ^and feeling no need of such
growth, we remain ignorant, foolish, perverse, mor-
ally deficient, restless, miserable. How many are in
this unfortunate, deplorable state !

4. Pride, or the lack of humility, is equally mis-
chievous and hateful in aggravating our social mis-
conduct and multiplying the evils incident to the
relations we sustain to our fellow-men. It renders
us insolent, sycophantic, contemptuous, hypocritical,
or hateful towards our superiors; jealous and war-
like towards our competitors ; domineering and abu-
sive towards our dependents ; impertinent, unkind,
or neglectful towards strangers; bigoted, denuncia-
tory, and persecuting towards those who may differ
from us, however honest and upright they may be ;
eager to punish all classes of offenders ; revengeful
towards any who wrong or injure us ; implacable and
unforgiving towards enemies ; and often uncomforta-
ble and annoying, if not offensive and vexatious, to
our best friends. Nothing of all this accords with
pure Christian morality, with social harmony and
happiness, or with human progress towards perfec-
tion. It is all wrong and worthy only of execration,
and must be superseded by humility, or we have
discord and confusion rather than order, unity, peace,
brotherhood ; hell, and not heaven.

106 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

5. Pride poisons and paralyzes every virtue with
which it is allowed to co-exist in any one, and to the
extent of its indulgence and effrontery. No matter
how moral or exemplary people may be in other
respects, if this odious vice reigns in them, it dulls
their most shining qualities of soul, neutralizes their
best influence, detracts from their noblest perform-
ances and even sours their charities. It is a dragon
with poisoned fangs though caged in the bosom of a
saint It is a deadly bane to all heavenly feelings,
motives, words, and deeds. Its only neutralizing
agency and sure antidote is humility. This gives the
proper balance to the soul and imparts health, vigor,
and beauty to all other excellences of character. It
can pluck from iniquity itself the sharpest sting and
render tolerable sinners who otherwise could hardly
be endured.

Let us fix our attention then with heartfelt
approval, yea, with admiration and profound rever-
ence, on this fundamental virtue of humility as it
shines forth from its paramount place in Primitive
Christianity, and especially as it found illustration
in Christ himself through both precept and example.
How true, pure, and perfect was his character in
this respect! Did he not speak wisely and justly
when he said "I am meek and lowly in heart?"
And yet did he ever depreciate or dishonor his own
moral dignity, worth, responsibility, or authority?'
Did he ever underestimate himself? ever cower,
cringe, or debase himself before the face of men ?'
or in any way sink himself below his own proper
level as the great spiritual Teacher and Leader of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 107

mankind to their divinely ordained and glorious
destiny ? ever show himself to be tame, spiritless,
servile ? Never. And now, on the other hand, did
he ever over-estimate himself, assume false impor-
tance before God or man, or exempt himself from
the most menial offices of usefulness and benefi-
cence? Did he ever deride or despise the poorest
speciman of humanity, the most guilty sinner, or
the vilest wretch ? Never. The only instances in
which he seemed especially stern and severe
in which he has been charged by his critics with
harshness and cruelty, are those wherein he rebuked
and denounced pride and self-righteousness. In his
day there were Scribes and Pharisees, rulers and
lordly officials in both church and state, notoriously
haughty, bigoted, tyrannical, covetous, persecuting,
hypocritical. Was it unbecoming the prince of
humility and meekness to arraign such at the bar
of righteous judgment and visit them with stern and
uncompromising reproof and condemnation ? Was
it out of place and out of divine order for the great
Teacher of absolute truth and righteousness to
upbraid them and forewarn them of the bitter woes
they were treasuring up for themselves under the
government of a just God against the inevitable day
of retribution ? Could he have loved humility and
been true to its imperative demands and not have
hated pride in these its worst forms, and declared in
terms not to be misapprehended what must be the
consequences of persistently and flagrantly cherish-
ing and indulging it? Could he have preached
humility to any good purpose witBout reprobating

108 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

its opposite, conceit and haughtiness ? Could he
have been the true Christ and approved those guilty
of arrogance and hypocritical pretence? or flattered
them ? or excused and condoned their vices without
testifying boldly and unequivocally against them as
utterly repugnant to the fundamental principles of
morality and to human happiness ? Surely not.
Yet he was not the enemy even of such sinners but
their true friend. For after having faithfully
reproved them, he sat down and wept for them as
he did over the city upon which their iniquity was
bringing a swift and terrible destruction. (Read
Matt, xxiii. 36-39.)

ASTD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 10&

shall humble himself as this little child, the same is
greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matt xviii. 4.
" Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased and he
that humbleth himself skall be exalted." Luke xiv.
ii. "Whosoever will be chief among you let him
be your servant ; even as the son of man came not
to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 27, 28.
"If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet,
ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I
have given you an example, that ye should do as I
have done unto you." John xiii. 14, 15.

Well did his Apostles reiterate and magnify their
Master's example and precepts. Thus, Paul, as a
faithful representative of them all, says; "These
hands have ministered to my necessities and to
those that were with me. I have showed you all
things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the
weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to
receive.' " Acts xx. 34, 35. "Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory ; but in lowliness of mind
let each esteem others better than themselves."
" Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus." PAiI.il 3, 5. "Put on therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffer-
ing." Col Hi. 12. Are not these precepts et like
apples of gold in pictures of silver ? "

Such is the pure Primitive Christianity in respect
to this fundamental virtue of humility. Can we con-
ceive of anything higher, sublimer, or more beautiful

110 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in this branch of morality? What if nominal Chris-
tendom had always exemplified this exalted virtue !
What if the professed Christian church had done so !
What if a single denomination of those bearing the
Christian name! What a glorious sight would we
behold if a regenerate Church should arise to do
this ? a regenerate Christendom ? a regenerate
world? Let these questions suggest their appro-
priate answers and a thousand wholesome comments
not now convenient to be made. And let us farther
inquire if there be any defect in the primitive theory
of the essential worth and importance of the virtue
of humility in the Christian system of morality and
in the rightful ordering of human life ? Or any
fault to be found with its illustrious model, the
Founder of our faith ? Can individuals, families,
communities, nations, or the race of mankind, ever
be truly holy and happy without such humility as
has been set forth? Is not pride in all its phases
and manifestations an offence against pure Christian
morality and a bane to human welfare ? Who can
deny, dispute, or doubt the truth implied in these
interrogatories ?

What then can we do individually and socially, in
behalf of this cardinal virtue against its vicious oppo-
site; to embrace, cultivate, cherish, and promote
pure humility among men to abjure and renounce
pride and exterminate it from our own hearts and
from the world ? Moral fidelity and progress impera-
tively demand that we do our best in the furtherance
of those important ends. We all detest pride in
other people. Why can we not detect and abhor it

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. Ill

in ourselves ? We all admire and commend humil-
ity in those about us. Why can we not nourish it
in our own hearts and exemplify it in our lives ? If
we look up to our heavenly Father, the greatest and
best of beings, the infinitely perfect One, behold, we
find in Him the most wonderful and sublime humil-
ity. The splendors of His throne shine forth in
unpretentious simplicity and severity; they fill the
vast reaches of universal being with their uncon-
scious glory. He does not hold himself in any proper
sense above and aloof from the least of the creatures
He has made. Not a being or thing in His far-reach-
ing dominion is beneath His notice and His care ;
not a single soul bearing His image and likeness,
however lowly, degraded, or sinful, is beyond the
reach of His tireless vision or of His merciful provi-
dence, no, not a worm of the dust or a mote in
the sunbeam is left unguarded and uncared for by
Him. No arrogance or haughty disdain and con-
tempt ever brings reproach upon the name of the
Most High and Most Holy, or in any way vitiates
the order of His government in any department or
province of His vast empire. "He is good to all
and his tender mercies are over all his works."

So if we contemplate His model son, as he lived,
suffered, and died here upon earth, or as he reigns in
mediatorial glory above, no self-exaltation or con-
temptuous pride stains his royal robe or disfigures
the beauty of his holiness. What he would have his
disciples be, he was and is "meek and lowly in
heart," "the same yesterday, today, and forever,"
perpetually rebuking our selfishness and pride, and

112 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

saying to us, "Follow me." If we aspire to enter
the kingdom of heaven and be joined in holy friend-
ship with the innumerable company of angels and
spirits of the redeemed, it is well for us to know
that no pride can have a place there. In that blessed
realm the greatest are the humblest; the mightiest,
meekest; and the most renowned are as innocent,
teachable, little children. Do we " pray that this
kingdom may come to our world and that the will of
God may be done on earth as in heaven? Then
surely we cannot consent that pride should continue
its arrogant rule among men, making them contemn,
despise, trample upon, and devour one another. No ;
for all pride is of hell, a prolific source of discord,
confusion, hatred, misery; while humility is of
heaven, the condition of normal healthy growth in
the powers and graces of the heavenly life and the
promoter of order, mutual good-will, harmony, and
happiness. Let us be sure of these holy truths and
learn to think, to speak, to act learn to hve accord-
ingly.

Pride, thou haughty, hateful vice !
Chief of an impious clan !

We know from whence thou had'st thy rise
And how thy life began.

Crude knowledge was thy foolish dame,

And selfishness thy sire ;
From these thy scornful nature came,

And these thy life inspire.

Thou art a subtle demon lust

In every votary's breast,
Assuming, lordly and unjust,

If not firmly repressed.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 113

Thou makest man a rebel child

Against his Father's throne:
A tyrant, arrogant and wild.

Whose heart seems turned to stone.

Thus might usurps the place of right :

The strong oppress the weak ;
And foul revenge and cruel spite

On suffering victims wreak.

But now Humility we hail !

Of love and wisdom boru,
The ills of Pride to countervail

And overcome its scorn

From God she comes \\ ith angel grace

Displaying heavenly charms :
And bids a haughty, warring race

Lay down its clashing arms.

Inspired by her, we God revere,

His holy laws obey:
We treat mankind as brethren dear,

And for all nations pray.

And thus inspired we walk with God,

And dwell in peace with men ;
Nor shrink from truth's correcting rod,

E'en though it gives us pain.

So may we life's best lessons learn,

Gain from its ills release ;
And, as we sin and folly spurn,

Find everlasting peace.

DISCOURSE IX.

ON SELF-DENIAL AS A FUNDAMENTAL VIRTUE.

" Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and fol-
low me.'' Matt. xvi. 24.

In my last discourse I discussed the subject of
Humility, which I declared to be the primary virtue
of pure, primitive Christian morality. In the pres-
ent one I will treat of Self-denial for righteousness'
sake, as the next in order according to the classifica-
tion which I make of the general matter under con-
sideration. This virtue is closely related to humility
and like it is equally a constituent element of piety,
as it is of morality. But at present we are to
regard it only in its relation to the latter.

What then is Self-denial for righteousness 1 sake,
as I am pleased to phrase the theme now claiming
attention ? Let us analyze and define it. What is
self, or selfhood, as commonly used and understood ?
It is one's own proper individual being, as dis-
tinguishable from all other beings and things ; each
one's own constitutional, organic personality; that
which he or she means by the terms, "I, me, or
myself/ 1 What is self-denial? It is the withhold-
ing from one's self or refusing to share some gratifi-
cation, pleasure, or possession, in some respects very

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY 115

desirable, for the time being or it may be perma-
nently. And what is self-denial for righteousness 1
sake? It is the rejection of some such gratification,
pleasure, or possession, from a conviction that it is
wrong, or not best, all things considered; that it
is contrary to one's highest sense of duty either to
God or man, and hostile to the divine government and
to the general welfare and happiness. It is doing
this under the conviction named, however disagree-
able, trying, or even painful such action may be.
Indeed the idea of self-denial usually implies some-
thing disagreeable, trying, or painful ; and the merit
of it is proportioned to the extent to which these
elements enter into or are consequent upon its exer-
cise. It is therefore sometimes expressed in the
phrase "Taking up the cross," as we find the
thought repeated in our text.

What does self-denial for righteousness* sake
imply ? It implies ( i ) That self-gratification is
sometimes wrong, sinful, and evil. (2) That in
such a case, self-denial is an imperative duty indis-
pensable to true personal righteousness. And (3)
That there is in human selfhood a central power, a
pivotal faculty, capable of determining whether one
will gratify or deny self in any supposable or actual
case. Reject either of these three implied truths and
logically there could be no such virtue as self-denial
for righteousness' sake. Assume that self-gratifica-
tion is always right, and then there will be no need of
self-denial; no call to practice it, no good to come
from it. Assume that self-denial is never an impera-
tive duty, and it must be either contrary to duty or a

116 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

matter of indifference, morally considered. Assume
that man has no power of choosing and determining
amid conflicting influences whether he will gratify
or deny himself, then he is irresponsible no
moral agent and not a subject of whom duty can be
predicated.

But I hold the three implied truths I have named
to be absolute truths Primitive Christianity takes
them for granted, and our best experience demon-
strates their reality. We find ourselves constituted
and organized in such a manner that though all our
faculties are good in their place and when rightly
exercised, yet are they all more or less liable to get
out of their divinely appointed order and to be
wrongfully exercised. We find that we have animal,
intellectual, and religious capabilities, each of these
classes craving their respective peculiar satisfactions ;
we have also appetites, propensities, inclinations,
tastes, passions, of a corresponding animal, intel-
lectual, and religious character. We find, further-
more, that the different groups of faculties which we
by birthright possess, often oppose and countercheck
each other ; that the desires or cravings of the lower
groups are sometimes in open conflict with the
impulses and demands of the higher, causing a
tumult of the native forces within the breast which
it is extremely difficult if not impossible, for the
time being, for the central, determining power which
we name the will to control; that lust, sentiment,
reason the conflicting agencies cannot be har-
monized and made to act in unison for the develop-
ment and perfecting of character except the will,

AND ITS COBRUPTIOXS. 117

sanctified by the divine Spirit, be able to govern
them and hold them subservient to a common
exalted and beneficent purpose ; and that until this
high and noble attainment be reached, or at least
approximated, man is a discordant, disorderly, dis-
contented being more or less unhappy, if not
lamentably miserable. All this will be readily
granted by people of average intelligence and
reflection.

What then is the grand desideratum ? the first
thing to be sought after in view of existing facts, as
we have noted them ? What but the harmony and
co-operation of all our constitutional endowments,
of all our native powers ? But this can be accom-
plished only by bringing them each and all into
proper order and exercise as respects one another
and the aggregate whole, so that the animal, the
mental, the moral, and religious natures shall stand
in their designed relationship and gradation, and
discharge their respective functions according to the
supreme divine laws of their being. This cannot be
effected without much persistent though temporary
self-denial for righteousness' sake. Why ? Because
our selfhood is pleased and gratified for a time with
such enjoyment as comes through its predominant
and most active faculties, though they be low and
disorderly ; and it is these that are generally and
naturally in the ascendant during the rudimental
stages of human life and history. " First the nat-
ural " ; that is, the fleshly, the sensuous ; " afterward
that which is spiritual " the intellectual, the moral,
the religious. Such is the order of human develop-

118 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ment and progress as illustrated in individuals and in
the race. Hence, though the lower has at present
an advantage over the higher and holds supremacy in
both thought and conduct, and though the delights
of today may involve miseries for tomorrow and a
pound of present pleasure may entail upon us a ton
of future regret and pain, yet are we prone to snatch
with eagerness what now charms and gladdens us,
regardless of the inevitable consequences of sorrow
and distress sooner or later to he visited upon us.
We dread immediate discomfort and privation the
cross now offered us, even though they are indispen-
sable to the attainment of incomprehensibly superior
good, far more than we prize the benefits and bless-
ings to be gained thereby the crown of triumph
and of endless rejoicing. And this will continue, as
most natural, so long as the lower principles within
us hold the mastery of us against the higher and
yield their legitimate fruits in our experience. For
thus long we are of the gross and animal mind, or,
as Paul terms it, "carnally minded," the result of
which is death moral death death to the high-
est and noblest capacities and possibilities of our
being. And death in this sense is but the precursor
of unrest, discontent, wretchedness

Hence it is that vast multitudes of our fellow-men
are disappointed of their desired happiness and other
multitudes are sadly and hopelessly miserable. The
desire for happiness is a native instinct of the human
heart and all men have that desire quickened within
them, a burning thirst it is with many people, but
they fail of it by mistaking either its nature and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 119

character, or the conditions of its attainment, or
both. With most persons, the gratification of the
sensibilities and tastes, the pleasure of self-indul-
gence, a momentary rapture or revelry of the emo-
tions, is happiness. With others, happiness is
closely allied to worldly success, the gaining of
wealth, distinction, honor, fame, outward display,
more or less refined luxury, and these are therefore
laboriously struggled for as essential to it, though
the struggle be often in vain. Still others, higher in
the scale of advancement, seek it in the pursuit of
worldly wisdom, in the realms of science, philosophy,
literature, or some other purely intellectual activity
or possession. Indeed the roads to expected happi-
ness and the means of securing it are indefinitely
various. But if blindly or selfishly sought, if sought
for its own sake or in neglect or defiance of moral
considerations in contravention of the law of
righteousness or the good of mankind, by whatever
road or means, the seeker fails. God, in the very
nature of things and by the laws of His righteous
government, has decreed His inevitable disappoint-
ment. And we ought to rejoice that it is so ; for
disappointment in all such cases is as wholesome to
him who experiences it as it is sure. It is salutary
to all concerned, for by it they learn wisdom and are
corrected of what only does them harm.

Primitive Christianity in its purity proclaims the
Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the
unity of all real human interests, the transcendent
reality of immortal existence, and the necessity of
bringing into true orderly exercise all our constitu-

120 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

tional faculties as the condition of pure and lasting
happiness. This result can be wrought out only by
more or less of self-denial. Yet self-denial is never
required of us for its own sake but only for right-
eousness' sake ; and for that in those cases alone in
which self-indulgence is really sinful or contrary to
the divine order; nor even then against the absolute
good of the individual concerned but for his highest
good, as consistent with the highest universal good.
Thus we are brought to the precise point now under
consideration, to wit: The importance of self-
denial for righteousness' sake, as one of the funda-
mental virtues or essential elements of pure Christian
morality.

This morality, as already defined, includes the
duties more especially which man owes to himself
and to his fellow-creatures. Man owes to himself
those duties which are needful to promote health,
development, and general well-being, physically,
intellectually, morally, and spiritually. Every viola-
tion of those duties is harmful and to a greater or
less extent suicidal. Man owes to his fellow-beings
the duties implied in the second great commandment,
in the golden rule, in the injunction ; "Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them that despitef ully use
you and persecute you." Every violation of these
duties is hartuful to the neighbor and to a greater or
less extent fratricidal. Man owes to those orders of
being above and below himself, those duties which
their natures and the eternal fitness of things render
just, reasonable, and beneficent; from the archangel

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 121

in heaven on the one hand to the worm of the dust
on the other. To violate these duties is to war
against the general laws of order and the universal
good. And all violations of these several classes of
duties are offences more or less flagrant and criminal
against the primitive morality of the Gospel of
Christ.

But these several classes of duties cannot be dis-
charged to the fullest extent of human responsibility
without the exercise of more or less self-denial
without often taking up the cross. Do we not
clearly see that multitudes of people are enfeebled,
diseased, incapacitated for useful service, and even
killed, by intemperance, by the disorderly indulgence
of their appetites and carnal lusts, by various kinds
of self-abuse? Why? Simply and solely because
they will not deny themselves wrong and harmful
gratifications. Do we not see that many remain
ignorant, foolish, undeveloped in mind, either because
they will not be at the necessary pains to learn, or
because the more favored in the same regard will
not bear the cross of teaching them without immedi-
ate reward ? Is it not obvious that hosts of our race
are vicious and criminally sinful for the same essen-
tial reason ; because they will not deny themselves
the indulgence of some inordinate appetite, base
passion, or unhallowed desire, or because those who
might instruct them in the principles of virtue and
lead them in the way of a better life will not be at
the trouble of doing so ? And there is no help for
those who are in such a case without self-denial
for righteousness* sake. Christ himself cannot save

122 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

them otherwise than by inducing them to take up
the cross and follow him. He bore his own cross
and was made perfect through suffering. So must it
be with us in the respects now under consideration,
or we become guilty of immoralities more or less
injurious to ourselves and therefore proportionally
worthy of reprobation.

If we turn now to that kind of gratification which
works mischief and injury to our brethren, it is even
more wicked and blameworthy. It is surely bad
enough to abuse, injure, and despoil one's self; how
much more to abuse, injure, and despoil one's brother
or sister of the family of God ? Yet who ever
neglected or wronged a fellow human being but to
gratify some selfish propensity, impulse, passion, or
lust ? For what does any one defraud, slander,
oppress, corrupt, rob, wound, kill another, or injure
him in any way as to person, property, reputation, or
character? Seldom, if ever without some expecta-
tion or motive centering in self ; some purpose of
self-gratification. It may be refined or gross and
sensual ; substantial or fanciful ; cold and calculating
or impulsive and passional ; the morale of the act is
the same. The principle involved is the same
whether the object sought be to mount a throne or
secure an office, to gain a fortune or procure means
to buy an intoxicating draught, to win military glory
or pugilistic fame, to satisfy an aesthetic taste or a
perverse lust, to gratify a mere prejudice or whim
or indulge the spirit of revenge, jealousy, and malig-
nant hate. No matter what, the controlling motive
or purpose is the same, and self-denial is the effect-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 123

ual preventive of all such forms of iniquity. Primi-
tive Christianity therefore enjoins upon us this virtue
of self-denial in regard to anything and everything,
however pleasurable or satisfying to ourselves, which
we cannot have or do without disobeying the same
great command in its widest application ; " Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Under that
command as under the golden rule and the injunction
quoted, t( Love your enemies," etc., we find in abun-
dance denials of self to practice and crosses in imita-
tion of Christ to take up. They are all of the same
wholesome nature and he who in good conscience
can be faithful in any one of the duties involved and
required of him can if he will be faithful in all.

Nor must we forget another class of self-denials to
be regarded for righteousness* sake. I refer to the
many omissions and neglects by which we often
wrong ourselves and our suffering brethren. They
usually come through sheer thoughtlessness, indo-
lence, love of ease, and want of kindly consideration.
There is really as sinful self-gratification in these as
in other cases. Some people are so indifferent to
others* condition, so fond of their own comfort, that
it is a burden to rouse themselves from their lethar-
gic state and engage in any useful calling, a trial
to be interested in the well-being of those about
them or to extend to them sympathy and help in
time of need. But Primitive Christianity prompts
to a tender regard for others and enjoins activity in
aiding them and diligence in every good work. And
this to avoid being a burden to fellow-men and at
the same time to have the means of aiding the less

124 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

fortunate and destitute in society at large. It has
a cross for the listless, the indifferent, the uncon-
cerned, and the lazy, as well as for other self-seeking
offenders against their own and others good.

And if we apply the same principles to our treat-
ment of the lower orders of creation, we shall find
that while we are allowed to use them in such ways
as shall conduce to our own and our neighbors' sus-
tenance, safety, comfort, and happiness, we are for-
bidden to abuse or torture them, or to inflict upon
them needless pain, even in taking their lives, as we
are privileged to do in the case of beasts of prey in
order to preserve ourselves and others from harm by
them, or in other cases for the purpose of using their
flesh for food. To overwork or underfeed, to neglect
or mercilessly beat, those domestic animals to which
we owe so much for the varied service they render
us, is an injustice of which we should never be
guilty ; a sin to be repented of as soon as possible
and put forever away. To set ferocious and quarrel-
some brutes in hostile array with each other, as in
some of the bloody sports of the ancient Roman
arena or the modern bull-fights of Spain, bespeaks a
savage nature a nature as yet unblessed by the
spirit of Christ and untrained in the love of his
Gospel. Even the most vicious and dangerous of
animals, like the tiger or hyena, and the most
venomous of serpents are to be spared all needless
cruelty and suffering at the hands of man in his
endeavors to save himself and others from their
ravages or to exterminate them altogether.

But some may say that I am carrying the princi-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 12S

pies of Christian morality to a very great extreme
and spinning my theories exceedingly fine. No
more so than the spirit of Primitive Christianity
requires. No more so than is reasonable and just.
No more so than is requisite to the highest type of
character or to the designed well-being and happi-
ness of the whole creation of God. What do we
want of a professed Christian morality that is bar-
barous, semi-barbarous, or merely civilized according
to the crude standard of the world as it now is ?
Such a morality would be hardly worth having, much
less devotedly loving, living for, and unreservedly
promoting. For it would do little in the way of lifting
the soul out of its selfishness and sin, or the world
to a higher level of righteousness, brotherhood, and
blessedness than that which it now occupies, and
which is characterized by innumerable evils and mis-
eries. We want a morality that is complete and per-
fect in itself, that cannot be transcended, the fruits
whereof are holiness and happiness, quietness and
assurance forever. And such a one we have in
Primitive Christianity ; and it becomes us to hear,
reverence, and obey its requirements touching this
cardinal virtue of self-denial for righteousness' sake,
as communicated to us in the New Testament
Scriptures, the testimony of which can be appre-
hended by a few sample passages.

The first that I quote is Luke's version of the
text: "If any man will come after me let him deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same

126 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

shall find it For what is a man advantaged if he
gain the whole world and lose himself or be a cast-a-
way?" Luke ix. 23-25. Of a similar purport are
the following: "Whosoever doth not bear his cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple." Luke xiv.
27. "If thy right eye cause thee to offend, pluck it
out and cast it from thee ; for it is better that one of
thy members should perish than that thy whole body
should be cast into hell." Matt. v. 29. "If ye live
after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye through the
Spirit do mortifiy the deeds of the body ye shall
live/' Rom. viii. 13. "Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth ; fornication,
uncleanliness, inordinate affection, evil concupis-
cence, and covetousness which is idolatry." Col-
iiL 5. "For the grace of God that bringeth salva-
tion to all men hath appeared, teaching us that
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present
world." Titus ii 11, 12. "We then that are
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,
and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us
please his neighbor for his good to edification."
Rom. xv. i, 2. "Present your bodies a living sacri-
fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reason-
able service." Rom. xii. i.

Such is the primitive Christian doctrine of self-
denial for righteousness* sake. Do we reject it ? If
so, we so far reject Christ and will not be his disci-
ples. Turning away from his standard of morality,
we shall set up one of our own, and in the order of
nature and providence must take the consequences

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 127

of such action What will they be? (ij We shall
have a low, selfish, linsey-woolsey, fluctuating moral
ideal, modeled after the customs and fashions of the
age, which will produce in us a cheap, common-place
type of character not one of superior excellence,
of solid strength, and of commanding influence and
power for good in the world. (2.) We shall be in
great danger of transposing pleasure and pain, of
making a little present enjoyment cheat us out of
untold future satisfaction and delight, of bartering a
sraall momentary cross for one much more burden-
some and painful in the end. (3.) We shall sow in
our own natures the seed-grain of selfish gratification
and carnal pleasure after the manner of this world,
the harvest whereof, to be sooner or later reaped, is
disappointment, unrest, self-reproach, and misery.
(4.) We shall be found fighting against the truth,
against the progress of mankind, against our own
and others highest good and happiness. ( 5 ) We
shall in the end utterly fail in our plans and expecta-
tions, lose a thousand opportunities of rising in the
scale of being and of blessing the world, suffer inglo-
rious defeat. For Primitive Christianity against
which we rebel, based as it is upon the eternal
verities and bulwarked by the strength of the omni-
potent God, will in due time triumph over all its foes
and reign victorious throughout the earth. The
kingdom of God, for which it stands and whose vice-
regent it is among men, will surely some day come,
and the divine will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.

128 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Let us then be wise. Let us choose that cross of
Christian Self-denial which insures for those who
bear it a crown of life. Let us remember that there
was never a truly great and noble personage, a real
saint, a moral hero, a benefactor of his kind, an ideal
character, who did not personify and illustrate in
large measure this essential virtue of self-denial
never, indeed, an exemplary and praiseworthy father,
mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, or
sister ; never a really congenial and lovable associ-
ate or friend. It is a vital element of character
a constituent of the loftiest type of manhood and
womanhood. Blessed are they who deny themselves
for righteousness' sake, who are as regardful of
others' welfare as of their own, who are willing to
serve rather than to be served, who forego personal
ease, pleasure, comfort, advantage, that they may
with each passing year increase the aggregate of
human joy, and "make the sum of human sorrows
less"; who suffer injuries rather than inflict them,
and who, like the great Exemplar, forget the wrong
committed against them in their self-denying com-
passion for those guilty of such wrong. For truly it
maybe said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven/*
And if I cannot make my final home with the like of
these, let me sleep the dreamless sleep that knows
no waking forevermore. And if I long for a heaven
peopled after such a fashion, may I deny myself
whatever would tend to make it a hell.

DISCOURSE X.

OX THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN VIRTUE OF
JUSTICE.

" The Lord * * blesseth the habitation of the just." Proi\
iii. 33.

" Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment." John vii. 24.

The recognition of Justice as a fundamental virtue
and element of character is not a distinguishing
peculiarity of the religion of Christ, as is indicated
by the fact that I introduce my present discourse
upon that subject with texts from both the Old and
the New Testament Scriptures. Nor is it limited to
those two great forms or systems of faith. All reli-
gious and moral philosophers acknowledge its reality
and its claims and enjoin the practice of it upon
their devotees. So in a certain sense do those who
are called Atheists, Pantheists, and Skeptics. The
sense of justice seems to have been deeply implanted
in the nature of man and manifests itself instinct-
ively with the first movements of the moral depart-
ment of his being, rendering it the most common
and universal of all the ethical ideas or principles
known to the world. In the abstract none deny its
validity or the obligations it imposes upon men, but
all, as they understand and apply it, regard it and

130 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

its requirements sacred. It is variously interpreted
and employed according to the mental and moral
status of any given individual or people, the age in
which they live, and the prevailing public opinion
and condition of society about them. Hence we
have had in the history of mankind, and do have in
a measure today, all possible notions or phases of
justice from the most crude, brutish, and barbarous
to the most humane, refined, and spiritualized. Still,
in all cases and under all forms of administration the
fundamental principle involved is the same, viz. : the
obligation to respect the rights of all beings, render
them what is their due, hold them to their proper
responsibility, and treat them according to their
deserts. Now Primitive Christianity does not deny
or ignore the existence of this principle or idea of
justice under other names than its own, or the whole-
some ends to which it may be there directed and
which it sometimes subserves, but it regards it and
commands the practice of it on its highest plane of
activity and in its most spiritual phases. But it does
not expatiate upon it, magnify it, give it the promi-
nence and the laudation which it is accustomed to
receive under those other auspices to which refer-
ence is made, and for the reason that they usually
make justice the summum bonum of all virtues
the apex of their ethical systems ; the most central
element of character and of righteousness. While
Christianity, although holding justice to be one of
the fundamental virtues and an indispensable one,
makes it subordinate to a higher diviner virtue
surmounts it, crowns it, swallows it up with perfect

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 131

love. "The end of the commandment," says Paul
"is charity," that is, love. And again, "Now,
abideth faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of
these is charity," love. The teachings of Christ are
to the same effect. He concentrates the whole law
of God, the whole duty of man, in one word, love.
In other words Christianity makes charity in its
largest sense, perfect love, its moral apex the
grand, cardinal, coronal principle of virtue. While
it imperatively requires us to do to others all that
justice dictates, in deed, in word, in thought, to deal
fairly and equitably with all other beings in even
measure and exact returns, it requires a vast deal
more ; love to enemies, blessings for those that curse
us, kindness to those that hate us, prayers for those
that despitefully use us and persecute us. Yea, it
demands that we forgive those who offend against
us, have compassion for the wicked and undeserving,
resist not evil with evil but overcome evil with good.
This is in no sense relaxing the claims of justice or
depreciating its awards ; but rather fulfilling it and
t ranscending its most beneficent characteristics. It
is not tolerating or authorizing injustice in the
slightest degree but obliging us to be incomparably
more considerate, kind, forbearing, merciful, gracious,
forgiving, than justice in its ordinary significance and
use implies or demands. Not that justice is natu-
rally and necessarily cold, unfeeling, heartless. In
its most exalted and spiritualized phase, it allows and
warrants a limited amount of kindness, clemency,
mercy, and renders its awards accordingly. But
there are boundaries and landmarks in this direction

132 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

which it must not pass. As the popular maxim has
it, "There is a point beyond which forbearance
ceases to be a virture." Not so Primitive Chris-
tianity.

But some one may ask, does not justice compre-
hend the highest goodness ? Why make it a lower
virtue than perfect love ? Because I so understand
the truth. Why distinguish the different virtues,
humility, self-denial, truthfulness, etc., from each
other at all ? Because there is a natural difference
between them which should be recognized' and fully
comprehended in the interest of intelligent thought.
All moral excellences are included in the general
term goodness or righteousness, just as all. the mem-
bers and faculities of a man's physical system are
included in what is ordinarily called his body. And
the component and separate parts of the entire body
should be tabulated and clearly understood, each by
itself, in order to a clear and complete understand
ing of the integral though complex whole. We
must analyze and study the component parts of any
subject in order to have a thorough knowledge of it*
The effect of lumping, mixing up, shuffling together,
and confounding natural distinctions, one elementary,
part of anything with another, or any one part with
the entire whole, is misapprehension, indefiniteness,
and manifold error. I belong to no such school of
thinkers and reasoners. I can appreciate, admife,
and enjoy the beauty of the rainbow as a whole, but
I want to take cognizance of and comprehend, as far
as possible, the seven prismatic colors that -o;upQse
it, just as nature has produced, Arranged; and placed

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 133

them, and blended them together So when a per-
son tells me that justice is goodness, that goodness
is the perfection of moral excellence, and that there
can be nothing better than that, he puts a part for
the whole and confuses and obscures the entire
realm of ethical thought and practice. As for me, I
desire to be able to apprehend and duly estimate
that complete and symmetrical union of virtues
which go to make up what may be called a system
of moral philosophy and which enter into and fill
out a well-developed, all-sided, perfect manhood or
womanhood " according to the measure of the stat-
ure of the fullness of Christ " ; but I desire also to
see and understand distinctly and precisely each
particular virtue represented therein, to comprehend
its peculiar nature, its distinctive office, its own
underived and absolute worth, and its relation to all
the other virtues and to the entire whole. And this
is why I make the classification and specialization
which characterize the present discussion.

I now return to the more direct consideration of
the subject which this discourse is desired to expound
and elucidate, the principle of justice as an essential
constituent of the divine moral law, and its practice
as a fundamental virtue, according to the teachings
and requirements of pure Christianity. Justice in
the Christian conception of it is to be regarded not
in that cold, calculating, pitiless, inexorable sense
'C'hich usually characterizes it in pagan philosophies,
or even under Jewish forms of administration,
demanding "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for

184 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

wound, stripe for stripe," but in its most refinedj
sympathetic, spiritualized sense in that manifesta-
tion and phase of it represented by the gentle Portia
in the Shaksperian drama where she inveighs against
the cruel demands of Shylock, saying that " earthly
power doth then show hkest God's when mercy sea-
sons justice." Another form of this higher phase or
manifestation of justice is clearly indicated in a pas-
sage of the Sermon on the Mount wherein Jesus says,
"It was said by them of olden time 'Thou shalt not
kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of
the judgment.' But I say unto you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without cause shall be in
danger of the judgment." Matt, v 21, 22. In
other words the Master of our Christian Israel
applies the principle of justice not alone to external
acts which work injury to the physical frames of
men, as was the case in Jewish jurisprudence, but to
the feelings and passions of the heart, and, by reason-
able implication, to the most secret and intangible
emotions, affections, desires, and purposes of which
human nature is capable. Even in these respects
affecting more or less our relations to our fellow-men
we must be just, impartial, and honorable, above
deceit and guile.

We thus perceive that however far justice may in
any particular fall below perfect love or any other
moral quality of the soul, it is high above and utterly
averse to all forms of inequality and cruelty oppres-
sion, persecution, defamation, calumny, slander, evil
speaking; even of envy, jealousy, suspicion, and ill-
will. High above also and utterly averse to much of

AXD ITS CORRUPTION. 135

what passes for fair and honorable dealing at least
for common decency and allowable conduct in com-
mercial life, in politics, in legislation, in jurispru-
dence, and in the everyday intercourse of social life
The number of persons who have been pre-eminently
just in deed, in word, in spirit, has been compara-
tively small in the history of our race, and, alas ! is
so still. No doubt there are and have been many
reputably just, passably just, tolerably just, according
to the standard of their times, and have been trusted
and honored accordingly. But the vast majority of
mankind have been unjust, tyrannical, oppressive, to
a greater or less extent, ready to take advantage of
>heir weaker, more unfortunate, or more foolish fellow-
men, anxious to profit by the disappointments, mis-
fortunes, and failures of others. It is largely due to
the fact that there has been so much injustice
wrought in the world, privately and publicly, by
individuals, associated interests, social systems,
states and nations that there has been and still is
such a demand for benevolent action, for what is
termed charity, for the help of suffering and wretched
humanity. How have the strong domineered over
the weak, the rich made vassals of the poor, the
wise outwitted the ignorant, the more fortunate
despised and frowned upon those less so, in neigh-
borhoods and general society! How have nations
and states enacted injustice into law, maintained
oppressive customs and institutions, engaged in fool-
ish and costly undertakings, fomented and waged
expensive wars, thereby imposing upon the people
at large, among them multitudes unable to bear

136 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

them, heavy burdens of taxation to weigh them
down and multiply their distresses year after year,
generation after generation, and age after age. Nor
has Christendom itself been exempt from blame and
condemnation in this regard; much less has it risen
to the high level of that divine justice which dispen-
ses equity and righteous awards, without bias or
favoritism, without partiality or hypocrisy, to all
classes and conditions of beings and things alike ;
which is the imperative duty of all men and the only
sure standing policy of nations, and which is com-
mended to us in the teaching and example of Jesus
Christ. Even our own favored country, claiming to
be the bright consummate flower of the world's civili-
zation and the vanguard of human progress adown the
ages was but yesterday the home and defence of
chattel slavery, one of the grossest forms of injustice
that ever outraged reason and the uncorrupt moral
sense of highminded men, crushed humanity to the
dust, made countless millions mourn, and called
down upon its guilty populations the retributive,
desolating judgments of Almighty God. Who can
forget that for many memorable years it despised the
few faithful men and women, who, loving justice and
the right, demanded freedom for the oppressed
and the breaking of fetters from the limbs of those
in bondage held, and persecuted unto shameful
extremes those prophets of the truth who testified
against the monstrous iniquity and called the guilty
in church and state to repentance and their duty to
both God and man. Nor did it heed the counsels
and warnings of such till the avenging fury came in

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 137

the form of civil war and at immense cost of treas-
ure and of life, and, amid the tears of millions of its
inhabitants, swept the giant curse away. But to
this clay no appreciable or equitable reparation has
been made to the emancipated for the spoliations
practiced upon them through many generations.
Even yet do they suffer for the wrongs to which
they were subjected by a professedly democratic and
Christian people, as they must and will do for years
and years ahead. So called Christian civilization in
its most advanced and boastful forms has a long
march of moral progress to make before it reaches
the summit of simple justice to all beings and things,
and then it will behold the loftier heights of perfect
love as Christ taught and exemplified it shining with
heavenly radiance far above them and wooing them,
with tender, imploring solicitude, thitherwards.

But what are the plain dictates of j ustice as seen
in the spiritual light of Primitive Christianity. I
reply:

i. Justice dictates that we render to God our
heavenly Father all that He has a natural right to
demand of us, to wit: reverence, obedience, confi-
dence, gratitude, filial love. To withhold these is to
rob Him of His rightful due and hence is more or
less sinful. This application of the principle of
justice to human thought and conduct constitutes a
necessary part of true piety. And so, subordinately,
Christ, the angels in heaven, prophets, apostles, and
all the great teachers, reformers, and benefactors of
the human race have important claims upon us for
appreciative and grateful recognition, and for the

138 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

preservation of their names, services, memories, and
salutary influence in our day and generation for our
o\\n benefit and the benefit of the world, and for the
perpetuation of the same to the same beneficent end
unto days and generations yet to come. These we
cannot ignore or contemn or neglect without incur-
ring guilt and wronging ourselves and humanity at
large.

2. Justice dictates that we respect the claims of
our own natures and of our proper individual being
It requires us to maintain our own distinctive per-
sonality and not suffer it to be swallowed up and lost
in any associated body or in the general mass of our
fellow-men ; that we hold sacred our reason and con-
science against all opposition and usurpation, how-
ever much we may suffer thereby for principle's
sake; that we subordinate the lower propensities,
passions, and tempers of our natures to our rational,
moral, and religious powers, that we bring all our
faculties and endowments into subjection to the laws
of divine order pertaining to their several depart-
ments, not perverting or abusing any of them but so
using them that we may become the truest, the
noblest, the best, in the totality of our characters,
of which we are capable. All this is required in
justice to our own constitutional, God-ordamed
individuality.

3. Justice dictates that we hold inviolate all the
rights and prerogatives of our fellow human beings,
without respect to persons, parties, or offices Every
human being has certain natural rights and preroga-
tives, and certain other conventional ones, which.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 139

unless forfeited by crime or gross abuse, are to be
regarded by his fellows as sacred, and as such to be
treated with due respect. Among these are "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"; also oppor-
tunities for education, development, progress, owner-
ship of property, domestic and social privileges,
reputation, and numerous means of usefulness and
enjoyment. To deprive one of any of these or
impair any of them by violence, oppression, fraud,
calumny, or any other means, is manifestly unjust,
the turpitude of the offence being proportioned to
the superiority in any respect of the offender. The
doctrine that " Might makes right " in any case is an
outrage upon the principle of justice and never to be
tolerated. That I am stronger, wiser, better than
another have an advantage over him in the matter
of wealth, position, social prestige, or influence, ren-
ders any injustice I may practice towards him the
more base and perfidious.

4. Justice requires the absolute return of kind-
ness and good treatment for the same manifestations
of friendly regard ; but evil is never to be rendered
for good, nor cursing for blessing in any possible
instance. Moreover, it demands that due considera-
tion be taken and proper allowance made for the
unfortunate heredity, ignorance, imperfection, and
other unpropitious or demoralizing circumstances
affecting wrong-doers or enemies unfavorably ; that
reasonable forbearance be shown amid injuries,
insults, and other provocations ; that no sinner be
adjudged more guilty than he is, all the circumstan-
ces of his special case being considered ; that no

140 PBIMIT1VE CHRISTIANITY

severer punishment be ever inflicted or sanctioned
than the offender rightfully deserves; and that no
clemency, mitigation of penalty, or pardon, be
refused when a guilty party gives evidence of being
worthy of it by sincere repentance, reparation of
wrong done, or reformation of life. So far justice
goes in respect to the treatment of offenders, crimi-
nals, and enemies, and no farther. The return of
good for evil, the effort to reform the vicious and
depraved, the forbearance to be shown the hardened
sinner, friendliness for the incorrigibly wicked,
declining to take the life of the malice-instigated
murderer, turning the right cheek when the other is
smitten, willingness to die rather than kill a desper-
ate assailant, refusal to approve, encourage, or
engage in bloody warfare, even though entered upon
by governmental authority and waged ostensibly to
repress an insurrection, repel an invading army,
overthrow tyranny, or establish liberty all this is
outside and above the realm where justice dwells
and holds imperial sway ; it belongs to the kingdom
of perfect love, of brotherhood and peace; and is
the dictate of that principle of moral order and
Christian righteousness which transcends justice
and is the crowning glory of the morality of the
Gospel.

5. Finally, justice dictates that the legitimate
rights of the animal world shall be acknowledged
and duly regarded. There is a radical difference
between a human being and an animal of whatsoever
grade. The former is by far the superior of the
latter and in a general way holds the latter in sub-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 141

jection, having the power of life and death over it.
It is man's prerogative to exterminate such animals
as he finds to be dangerous, mischievous, or worth-
less, to slay others for food or for other useful pur-
poses, to put others to service for his convenience
and advantage and treat them as property. Never-
theless, animals have rights that man is bound
to respect, as I have suggested in a former discourse.
Among these are the right to be spared needless
pain, all sorts of torture and protracted suffering.
And in the case of domestic beasts, the right to be
well-housed, well-fed, not to be over-tasked, and to
be kindly treated in every way. Not to regard these
man ; fest rights is to offend against a fundamental
principle of moral order, to sin not only against the
animal world but against God and incur deserved
reprobation.

Such is the exposition I have to offer touching the
subject of justice as an indispensable virtue or ele-
mental component part of Christian morality. There
is no occassion for citing precepts and testimonies
in support of the positions I have assumed concern-
ing it, or of the applications I have made of it to
human conduct in the various relations of life.
These are all plainly accordant with the letter of
the Gospel record and even more with its spirit. In
view of my statements and illustrations, what shall
we say of the practical justice prevalent in the
world, yea, in the nominal Christian world. Where
can we find those who are strictly and altogether
just? just in all the important particulars I have
specified? just individually, socially, religiously,.

142 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

politically, nationally, universally? Of one such,
wherever or whoever he or she may be, we might
well adopt the language of Jesus and say as he did
concerning Nathaniel, "Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no guile." But the number of
those worthy of this encomium is small, certainly
not as great as we could wish. Yet we will not
despair. Though a multitude have not attained to
the standard of perfection in this respect, though
justice has not gained a very far-reaching and signal
ascendancy," yet the seeds of justice have been sown
in many a heart and have brought forth a goodly
measure of fruitage in many a life. We have all, I
trust, felt the germs of this divine virtue swelling
in our own being and allowed them more or less ac-
tivity in our thought and conduct Let us nourish
them and encourage their growth till they come to
a generous harvest in a manhood and womanhood
enriched by them in the department of our being to
which they belong in a character distinguished for
justice and equity. And in us may there be fulfilled
the ancient saying, "The path of the just is as a
shining light, that shineth more and more unto the
perfect day."

DISCOURSE XI.

CLV THE FUNDAMENTAL VIRTUE OF
TRUTHFULNESS.

"But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not
walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceit-
fully ; but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God/' 2 Cor. iv. 2.

" Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with
his neighbor." Ephs. iv. 25.

What I said of justice in the opening sentences of
my last discourse is equally applicable to the subject
of the present one as a fundamental Christian virtue.
It is not distinctively peculiar to the religion of the
New Testament, but is common to all religions and
ethical philosophies, which inculcate it and urge it
upon their devotees as a vital element of personal
excellence, at least in the abstract and preceptively.
We can claim that Christ and his Apostles spiritual-
ize, intensify, and more stringently apply the principle
of truthfulness than do other great teachers of the
world. But this is no slight pre-eminence to claim
for the religion of the New Testament, since abstract
principles and general precepts of the highest order
are too commonly understood vaguely and very much
neutralized, if not grossly perverted, in popular prac-
tice. Hence it is that every one praises truth and
truthfulness and denounces their opposites, yet gen-

144 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

erally with very dim perception and imperfect
application of the cardinal principle involved. What
is needed is a thorough comprehension and applica-
tion of that principle in its most spiritualized form.
In the light of Primitive Christianity we may attain
these results with great facility and success; not so
much, perhaps, in the letter of exposition as -in the
deeper meaning and use of the essential spirit which
lies back of all terms* and phraseologies. According
to this light, what is the moral significance of truth-
fulness and what its underlying principle ? In
response to these inquiries, I observe:

i. All conscious manifestations of mind are
expressions of its thoughts, ideas, desires, intentions,
emotions, or conditions, which are either real or
unreal. If real, the expression is truthful ; if unreal,
it is false. Now all voluntary manifestations of
mind, or nearly all, are addressed in the form of
language to some other being or beings, with the
intention of making such being or beings under-
stand that the thought, idea, emotion, or condition
is really what it is thus represented to be; at least,
that it is understood to be so to the one who gives it
expression. If so, he is truthful ; if not, untruthful.
The modes of human expression are various. We
manifest mind by speaking in audible tones, by man-
ual signs and gestures, by changes of countenance,
etc., and even by significant silence. But no matter
how we express ourselves, such expression must be
true or false, wholly or in part. It conveys what to
our own consciousness is a truth or a falsehood. It
gives the party addressed a correct or a deceptive

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 145

apprehension of what exists in our own mind or con-
sciousness. I use this term consciousness with
caution here; because it may innocently mistake
the reality in some cases and deem that to be true
which is not so. Still the utterance would be truth-
ful in spirit, if it were so to our own consciousness,
though it might be contrary to fact. No person is
a deceiver if he has innocently mistaken the unreal
for the real. To be such, he must know that he is
making a false statement or impression, or, at least,
that he is communicating as truth what he has no
sufficient warrant for believing to be such.

2. The forms of truthfulness and untrtithfulness
are various, yet are they alike in essence. We desig-
nate them by different terms suited to their respect-
ive peculiarities. Thus, in contrast: truth, falsehood ;
sincerity, hypocrisy; honest}', dishonesty; fidelity,
treachery; veracity, mendacity; simplicity, duplic-
ity; frankness, dissimulation; candor, sophistry;
etc. When we use the terms truth and falsehood
we usually apply them to some statement or declara-
tion made in speech or writing which we deem true
or false in itself. Sincerity and hypocrisy are terms
which we apply to ingenuous motives or states of
mind, usually in relation to sentimental, moral, or reli-
gious professions. When we speak of one's honesty
or dishonesty, we commonly refer not so much to
states of mind and heart as to some outward act
deemed just and right, or fraudulent and wrong.
Fidelity and treachery are words that we apply to
cases in which people have or have not kept their
promises or fulfilled their vows or solemn obligations.

146 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Fidelity is faithfulness to trusts and assumed responsi-
bilities ; treachery is unfaithfulness to such, violation
of voluntary pledges or engagements. Veracity and
mendacity relate to habitual dispositions or states of
mind The prevailing disposition to speak and live
the truth is veracity ; the inclination to falsify, to
misrepresent, and deceive is mendacity. By simplic-
ity is meant the being and seeming what one really
thinks, means, and is ; by duplicity is meant equivo-
cation, two-facedness, pretending to be what one is
not. Frankness and dissimulation are words of
kindred signification. To speak openly and without
reserve, especially without keeping back anything of
a sinister or harmful nature, is frankness ; but a pre-
tence of truthfulness in personal relations, a show of
friendship when no friendship is felt, is dissimulation.
So in conducting an investigation or a debate, if one
manifests a desire to get at the truth, to look at the
subject in question from all sides, he is to be credited
with candor; but otherwise, if he misrepresents
facts or distorts arguments or refuses to hear or
consider evidence, it is no injustice to charge him
with sophistry. But under whatever names or forms
truthfulness and untruthfulness appear, they are
essentially one and the same virtue or vice in con-
trast the same things, variously expressed.

3, But why is truthfulness a fundamental virtue
and untruthfulness a corresponding vice ? For sev-
eral reasons. First, reality, fact, truth, has a natural
right to be recognized, understood, and honored ;
unreality, non-fact, falsehood, has no such right.
Second, it is an outrage on nature and the eternal

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 147

fitness of things to put unreality in the place of
reality, to substitute error for truth, and to treat
things which are not as if they were. Third, the
good and happiness of mankind depend, in the long
run, on the real and the true, not on the unreal and
false; consequently knowledge of the real and true
promotes the permanent well-being of men, while
deception, illusion, and falsity tend to human disorder
and wretchedness Fourth, all substitution of error
for truth is a fraud upon humanity an act opposed
to the highest interests of society and to the divine
order of the world. Fifth, whoever consciously
invents, propagates, or practices what is erroneous
and false, not only wrongs his kind thereby but him-
self; paralyzes the forces that promote his own
moral progress and impart strength, purpose, dignity,
and honor to his own soul.

For these and many other reasons, God forbids
untruthfulness and demands of His human children
truth and veracity. He has done so through all nat-
ural and revealed religions, through all moral phi-
losophies, and I might add through the common
reason and judgment of mankind.

4. Again, I remark that truthfulness depends
mainly on the love of truth for its own sake; I
mean the love of perceiving, appreciating, and
embracing all things, material, mental, moral, spir-
itual, according to their absolute reality. This is the
great underlying principle of truthfulness. Whoever
is so unscrupulous, or careless, or so prejudiced as
to feel little or no love of truth per se, cannot be
thoroughly truthful and worthy of confidence, but

148 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

oftentimes, if not continually, unreliable and treach-
erous. This is why there is so much double dealing
and dishonesty in the world. Comparatively few
people have a profound love of the truth for its own
sake and contemn falsehood under its every possible
form of manifestation. The great majority of people
do not intend to be untruthful, to practice duplicity
and fraud, to put falsehood for fact and reality, but
they are so inconsiderate, so careless, and so easily
influenced by fair seemings, that they are swept
along almost passively into the turbid stream of mis-
representation and deceit. They do not take pains
to distinguish in all cases the true from the false.
Besides, it is often easy and convenient both to
cheat and to be cheated ; as it is more or less diffi-
cult and uncomfortable to be wiser, more reliable,
more devoted to the truth, than the multitude. This
requires one to do much sober thinking, to forego
considerable present advantage, to be deemed eccen-
tric, to lose the exhilaration of popular sympathy,
and to endure more or less neglect if not scorn and
contempt. Nevertheless it pays a hundred fold in
the end to be truthful and put one's self on the side
of truth.

A great difficulty to be overcome by ordinarily
sincere and honest minds is that error and falsity not
only often assume the raiment of truth, but actually
have much of truth intermingled with them. There
is very little unmixed falsehood in the world; as
there is little counterfeit coin without some grains
of precious metal. The counterfeit is thus rendered
less distinguishable from the genuine and more cur-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 149

rent than would otherwise be the case. So with
many untruths. We must therefore exercise discre-
tion in rendering judgment and moderate our blame
in many cases apparently worthy of severe condemna-
tion. People deceive others because they are them-
selves deceived. They mistake mixed truth for pure
truth and thereby work mischief and harm. The
number of conscious, bare-faced, open hypocrites and
liars is smaller than rash, indiscriminating judges are
apt to assume ; though doubtless there are too many
of them. We must be careful not to set down as
wilful sinners in this regard half of those who prac-
tice untruthfuluess in some of its manifold forms;
for many are its unconscious and unwilling dupes
and instruments. Nevertheless, we should abhor the
sin, even when in strict justice we ought in some meas-
ure to absolve the sinner ; abhor uncompromisingly
all error and falsity, however sincerely it be mis-
taken for truth. And we can never attain to eminent
truthfulness and veracity ourselves without loving
and honoring truth in the spirit of truth and for its
own sake. We must desire most intensely to know,
believe, appreciate, and embrace all realities neces-
sary to our sustenance and development in every
department of existence. We must earnestly pray
to be preserved from all kinds of misconception,
delusion, and error; to view ourselves and all that
pertains to us only in the light of the eternal reality ;
and to regard in the same light all material, mental,
and spiritual beings and things within the range of
our study and contemplation, from the utmost con-
ceivable heights to the lowest abysses. No matter

150 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

whether any truth or fact brought to our notice be
beautiful or ugly, agreeable or disagreeable, popular
or unpopular, profitable or unprofitable at present,
ancient or modern, coincident with our preconceived
ideas and opinions or repugnant to them ; whether
held by saint or sinner, by Christian or pagan, by
friends or enemies ; if it commends itself, after fair
investigation to our highest convictions as truth, we
must in good conscience acknowledge it, bow before
it, bear witness to it, and stand uncompromisingly
by it whatever betide. And vice versa. Any
assumed truth or fact, however pleasant, .popular,
advantageous for the present, consonant with our
feelings or prejudices; though commended to us by
our dearest friends or by the best of men ; if, upon
examination, it is proved to our judgment and moral
sense to be an error or a fiction, then are we to
reject it and testify against it with equal determina-
tion and zeal, otherwise no one can tell into what
slime pits of illusion, falsity, degradation, and shame,
we may some day fall.

5. But, it may be asked, must we seek after,
investigate, and come to an understanding in regard
to all reality before resting from our labors ; before
finding satisfaction and happiness ? Must we appre-
hend and master all truth before we can feel that we
have attained the great end of existence and gained
the approving favor of our Father in heaven ? By no
means. I said, all truth proper and needful to our
growth, welfare, and happiness. Whatever of truth
for the time being it is impossible, or improper, or
unnecessary for us to concern ourselves about, it is

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 151

our duty to pass by and leave unconsidered. Of
such there is an infinitude, and we are but finite, and
by the very limitations of our nature cannot compass
and comprehend the all of wisdom or of knowledge.
"Who by searching can find out the Almighty to
perfection?" and all His works and ways? Who
indeed, can explore all the heights and depths of the
material universe ? Much more all the wonders and
mysteries of the spiritual creation of God? There
are however, ample fields for us to traverse and
study; realities in abundance into which we not only
can but ought to search; which it is not only proper
but indispensable for us to understand ; which it is
highly necessary that we should know beyond all
doubt or peradventure, in order to attain the great
end of our being or gain solid happiness. In this
regard and to the extent indicated is our duty plain
and imperative.

Again it may be asked, must we bear open witness
to all the truth made known to us? must we publish
all the secrets confided by investigation or otherwise
to our keeping ? Not necessarily. The old adage is
just, "The truth is not to be spoken at all times."
There may be circumstances in which it would be
unwise, improper, unnecessary, even wrong to make
open proclamation of all we know. The very high-
est truth is not to be uttered unqualifiedly, without
regard to times and seasons, without regard to the
objects to be promoted by its utterance, or to the
condition the state of mind and heart of those
who might hear it. Jesus had many things to say
to his disciples, but he must needs wait till they

52 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAXITT

ould bear them. The principle underlying and ani-
nating the duty of truthfulness requires not that
VQ shall tell all the truth we have acquired, make
>ublic all facts of which we have knowledge, but
hat so far as we do speak or reveal ourselves we
hall do so without misrepresentation, without mak-
ng persons or things appear in a false light, without
>erverting realities or putting falsities in place of
ealities. Whether we speak or refrain from speak-
ng in any given case, whether we reveal or withhold
rhat we know upon any particular subject, depends
ipon considerations of propriety and obligation then
nd there involved. But if we utter ourselves at all,
he duty to adhere strictly to the truth is absolute
nd irrepealable.

Once more it may be asked, does the morality of
ruthfulness forbid all fiction in literature, all ideal-
sm in art, all flights of the imagination in poetry,
tc ? everything but barren fact, unadorned reality,
he naked truth ? Is there no room or place within
he limitations of human responsibility for any kind
f disguise or simulation, for histrionic impersonation,
ramatic representation, or illusory exhibitions of
ny sort ? Answer : strict truthfulness allows such
Drms of fiction as assume to be nothing but fiction,
nd especially if they are honestly designed and
dapted to teach important lessons and so subserve
le best interests of humanity. But it allows of no
ction that pretends to be fact, or that is not calcu-
ited to instruct and inspire the minds and hearts of
len and so promote some useful, salutary, and bene-
cent end ; in other words, the cause of truth itself.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 153

The same is substantially the case respecting all
products of artistic skill not drawn from life, all
dramatic representation and pictures of the imagina-
tion in whatever form they may appear. They must,
however, stand for what they really are and put forth
no false pretences or claims. They must be of such
a character as not to permanently mislead or deceive
those to whom they are addressed but to instruct
and benefit them. If in any case they can be shown
to have a contrary effect if they induce a disre-
gard for the truth or cause people to undervalue its
importance or worth as one of the indispensable ele-
ments of character and as a primary duty of man,
they are to be discountenced and condemned. In
no case must there be open falsehood, no pleasing
deception or illusion, that may not be easily explained
or that is not understood to be such and not a real-
ity. Any performance or exhibition that makes
fiction appear to be fact, or that in any way conveys
to the mind of the participator or observer a perma-
nent false impression, is mischievous and repre-
hensible.

These strictures will apply to various kinds of
amusement that have a place in modern society. So
far as any form of merry-making or pleasure-promot-
ing comes within the lines of restriction laid down
it may be regarded as innocent and allowable.
There may be much ingenious and studied seciecy,
as in the preparation of Christmas presents or in
arranging for a surprise party a kind of temporary
deception of course which is neither intended nor
calculated to permanently mislead or cheat any one

154 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

but only to add to the pleasure of those concerned
when all plans are consummated and all secrecy is
laid open to the light, adding to the interest and
charm of the occasion. The claims of truth under
such circumstances are in no proper sense ignored
or violated The same may be said in substance of
tableaux and kindred counterfeit presentments ; also
of theatrical performances and dramatic representa-
tions of whatever sort. These are not in themselves
or necessarily sinful, or contrary to pure truthful-
ness ; though liable to become so by perversion and
abuse. I do not, like some others, dignify or exalt
overmuch any of these expedients for recreation as
means of moral discipline or schools of virtue, even
while admitting that they may be of a nature to
impart salutary lessons pertaining to personal charac-
ter, domestic order, and social life ; as in the case of
"Six Nights in a Bar Room/' and "Uncle Tom's
Cabin." But their chief use is that of furnishing,
when properly regulated, wholesome and meritori-
ous amusement for considerable classes of people.
Amusement is natural, useful, and desirable in its
proper time and place, chiefly as conducive to health*
sociability, and relaxation from the more onerous
burdens of life, but it is not its function to teach
religion, morals, philosophy, or science. Neither is
it self-regulating, but requires wise and watchful
supervision lest it run into excess or misuse and so
defeat the very ends it is designed to secure. Under
proper moral and religious control it will be innocent,
salutary, and worthy of encouragement and support,
thus fulfilling its legitimate and laudable office.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 155

Something of corresponding import may be said
of symbolism in religion ; that is, the use of signs,
like that of the cross, of emblems, like the bread
and wine of the eucharist, of pictures, etc. for the
purpose of awakening pious emotions in the breast, of
producing moral and spiritual impressions upon the
mind and heart, or of perpetuating such emotions
and impressions already existing there. Such aids
to devotion and virtue are, of course, harmless in
and of themselves, and may be employed to advan-
tage and approvingly so long as they are held strictly
subordinate to and promotive of the ends in view.
But they,, too, are liable to abuse are liable to
usurp the place of the objects they should serve; so
that the symbol would become a substitute for the
thing symbolized and interest in or regard for the
types and signs and badges of religion supplant reli-
gion itself in the thought and life of men. In such
a case they would become hindrances and not helps
to moral and spiritual health and progress, snares to
entrap and enslave the soul and not wings to bear it
upward and onward to heavenly heights. So that
here as in other matters mentioned a wise caution
and a discriminating supervision and care are
needful.

Finally, it may be asked, does pure truthfulness-
forbid the manifold usages in social and domestic
intercourse which are nothing more or less than
polite and pleasing falsities, or lies of convenience
it may be? Certainly, so far as they are falsities
and lies and are intended or calculated to mislead
and deceive. Their being polite, pleasing, conven-

156 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ient, or even common, does not change their moral
quality. Hypocrisy, deception, misrepresentation,
falsehood, however smooth, smiling, complimentary,
flattering, are morally wrong and reprehensible, and
fruitful of mischievous results. They undermine
character and destroy confidence. They form no
necessary part of genuine politeness, hospitality,
civility, or good manners, which are most needful to
individual and social happiness. These spring from
pure benevolence, kindly feeling, and sacred regard
for moral principle in the heart. What is a smile, a
welcome, a caress, a compliment, a flattering atten-
tion, if false? It is only a discourtesy, a sugared
insult, an imposition, a cruelty indeed, and very
likely to be discovered sooner or later, despite its
charming disguise, and bring its perpetrator to
shame. Truthfulness never requires us to be rude,
coarse, ill-mannered, or roughly brusque, or impolite,
even towards the unprincipled and wicked, though it
may sometimes demand that we be plainly if not
painfully severe in rebuking their follies and faults.
Neither does it require that we tell disagreeable
persons our opinion of them, that we express all our
dislikes, make known all our thoughts and convic-
tions, or even confess to human ears all our con-
scious imperfections and sins. Duty to God and
man may and often does prompt us to hold ourselves
in check and to keep from others many facts or
ruths with which we are conversant. But what we
io divulge must be the truth and not a falsehood
nust represent things as they are and not as they
ire not. True politeness, courtesy, urbanity, good

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 157

manners, are everywhere needed, but they should
be disconnected with everything like dissimulation,
hypocrisy, and heartless pretence, or they are an
offence to good morals and to good men and women.
Thus have I gone over the ground proposed in the
opening paragraphs of this discourse, examining the
subject of truthfulness or veracity in the light of
Primitive Christianity and in strict accordance with
the dictates of reason. In view of what has been
said it must be acknowledged that this virtue is
fundamental to a perfect system of morality and of
sacred and indispensable importance in the develop-
ment of a noble type of character. Christianity
would be a hollow and defective religion if it did not
include and magnify this element of duty and right-
eousness, as it most emphatically does. Why then is
Christendom so fraught with untruthfulness, decep-
tion, charlatanry, and fraud in manifold forms?
Every one praises this virtue but how few practise
it perfectly ! How much pretentious respectability,
morality, philanthropy, religion, there is in the
world ! To believe rightly, to sentimentalize zeal-
ously, to say shibboleth correctly, is deemed all
important, but to live honestly, to be what you seem
and seem what you are is of little consequence ; and
misrepresentation and falsification are no serious
offences, especially if they can be made to help a
good cause. Woe to the good cause that can be
helped by such objectionable means ! If it cannot
be advanced otherwise let it perish. Who lies for
any purpose, however excellent, is no true saint,
reformer, philanthropist, Christian. Without the

158 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

truth and against the truth there is no absolute
and enduring good. Therefore let us love the truth,
seek the truth, obey the truth, exemplify the truth,
and it shall be well with us, now, henceforth, and
forevermore.

** Think truly, and thy thoughts

Shall the world's famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine

Shall be a fruitful seed ;
Live truly, and thy life shall be

A great and noble Creed."

DISCOURSE XII.

CLV THE SUPREME VIRTUE OF PERFECT LOVE.

kt Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shah love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you and pray for them which despitefully use \ou and
persecute you , that ye ma\ be the children of ycur Father
\\hich is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the
evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust. For if ye love them which love you what reward
have ye ? Do not even the publicans the same ? And if ye
salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do
not the publicans so ? Be ye therefore perfect as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. v. 43-48.

In this passage we have presented to us the
crowning excellence of primitive Christian moral-
ity the enjoined obligation to cherish and exercise
perfect love towards all human beings, regardless
of race, nationality, character, or moral desert. No
other religion or philosophy known to me ever
required this extreme, unqualified, and unlimited
manifestation of a kindly, humane spirit. Others
teach the duty of benevolence in a general way,
and some give it a wide application even toward
offenders and enemies, but they all make specific
limitations and justify the utter disregard of per-
sonal well being, and even of life itself in extreme
cases of guilt or hostility. Christ and his Apostles

160 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

allow no such limitations, qualifications, or excep-
tions, either in teaching or in practice. The two
facts that they made no exceptions or limitations
to their broad preceptive teaching, and that their
example was in exact accordance therewith, are of
the highest importance in this discussion. For they
prove that those teachings were intended to convey
the essential meaning and to have the universal
application which they obviously express, and also
that pure Christian morality is really as incompar-
ably excellent as I have claimed. Had Christ and
the Apostles left other precepts opposed or excep-
tional to those referred to, we should have been
obliged to understand them in some restricted
sense; and if their authors had in certain cases
acted contrary to their seeming meaning, it would
have proved either that they intended to have them
understood in a restricted sense or that they were
themselves deficient in the virtue they enjoined on
their followers. If the former, these precepts mean
much less than they purport; if the latter, then
Jesus like many other great teachers of religion and
philosophy, preached what he could not or would
not practice himself. In such a case the less said
in praise of Primitive Christianity the better.

It is unquestionably true that we can quote a few
passages from the Old Testament which, taken by
themselves and in the letter of them, seem to be
similar to those found in the New respecting the
supremacy of love. Some such may be found in
the sacred writings of other nations than the Jews
and in the expositions of moral philosophers gen-

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 161

erally; though such are tame in comparison with
the ones now under consideration. But it is an
imposition to quote the former as of the same
nature and significance as the latter; especially to
quote them as proof that Christ taught no radically
higher morality than Moses, Confucius, Zoroaster,
Plato, etc. I pronounce this an imposition for the
reason that those ancient religious and moral teach-
ers have left on record a multitude of maxims or
instructions expressly authorizing and justifying
retaliation and pitiless vengeance towards excep-
tional classes of offenders, which partially if not
wholly neutralized what they may have said of an
opposite character; also because they deliberately
and habitually practiced revenge, injurious violence,
vindictive punishment, -and conflicts with deadly
weapons, which was in open and undisguised oppo-
sition to the example of Christ.

I am scrupulously careful to start fairly in what
I claim for Primitive Christianity respecting this doc-
trine of perfect love, in order, if possible, to preclude
the various unwarrantable assumptions which deny
that the positive teachings of the New Testament
have any such radical, comprehensive, and uncom-
promising import as is indicated in their verbal
form and as I claim. This claim I make and insist
upon most strenuously not only because a fair con-
struction of the letter of the text justifies such a
view of these teachings, but because there are
no other passages that modify or limit them, and
because their authors devotedly illustrated their
divine spirit in character and life. If It can be

162 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

shown that I am mistaken in respect to these two
points I should have no tenable ground upon which
to maintain the position I feel compelled to take
upon the matter in question. If these are conceded
my position is impregnable. Confident that it is so,
I proceed with my exposition. What then is it my
province to do ?

i. To present a sufficient amount of preceptive
and exemplary testimony from the New Testament
Scriptures to make it absolutely certain that Christ
and his ambassadors distinctly and uniformly taught
this sublime doctrine of perfect love. The text at
the head of this discourse is plain and explicit
upon this point, and Luke's report of the same
sermon from which I extract the passage, while
changing the phraseology does not change the sen-
timent inculcated. He says, "As ye would that
men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise*
For if ye love them which love you what thank have
ye; for sinners love those that love them And if
ye do good to them which do good to you, what
thank have ye ? for sinners also do even the same.
And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive,
what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sin-
ners to receive as much again. But love ye your
enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing
again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall
be the children of the Highest ; for he is kind unto
the unthankful and the evil. Be ye therefore mer-
ciful as your Father also is merciful." Luke vi.
31-36. I pass to other quotations: "Behold I send
you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ; be ye

AND ITS CORKUPTIOXS. 163

therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

Matt. x. 16. "Then came Peter to him and said,
Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and
I forgive him ? till seven times ? Jesus saith unto
him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but
until seventy times seven.*' Matt, xviii. 21, 22,
When the inhospitable Samaritans refused to enter-
tain Jesus and his disciples, James and John were
highly indignant and wanted to resent it, saying
unto their master, "Lord, wilt thou that we com-
mand fire to come down from heaven and consume
them even as EUas did? But he turned and
rebuked them and said, Ye know not what manner
of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not
come to destroy men's lives, but to save them/'
Luke ix. 54-56. When a certain lawyer asked
Jesus to tell him who was his neighbor, he answered
him with the Parable of the Good Samaritan, add-
ing to it the injunction, "Go thou and do likewise.*'

Ib. x. 29-37. When Peter would defend him at
the time of his betrayal, drawing a sword and
wounding a serx r ant of the high priest, Jesus healed
the wound, and turning to the disciple said, "Put
up thy sword again into its place ; for they that
take the sword shall perish with the sword."
Matt. xxvi. 52. When arraigned before the Roman
governor as a promoter of sedition, he said, "My
kingdom is not of this world ; if ray kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight that
I should not be delivered to the Jews." John xviii.
36. When expiring in agony on the cross amid the
taunts and maledictions of his enemies, Christ

164 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

prayed for them, thus ; " Father forgive them for
they know not what they do." Luke xxiii. 34.
Of the two great commands on which he declared
hang all the law and the prophets he affirmed that
the second is like unto the first, "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself." Matt. xxii. 39.

\Ve turn now to the apostolic teaching: "Let
love be without dissimulation." "Bless them which
persecute you ; bless and curse not." " Recompense
to no men evil for evil." "Avenge not yourselves
but rather give place unto wrath ; for it is written ,
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him ; if he
thirst, give him drink." "Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good." Rom. xii. 9, 14, 17,
19-21. "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted
we suffer it." i Cor. iv. 12. "See that none ren-
der evil for evil unto any man ; but ever follow
that which is good, both among yourselves and to
all men." I Tfiess. v. 15. "Put on charity (love)
which is the bond of perfectness." Col. iii. 14.
"Charity (love) sufferet hlong and is kind; charity
(love) envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed
up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoic-
eth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth
all things, believeth all things, endureth all things."
"Charity (love) never faileth." "And now abideth
faith, hope, charity (love); but the greatest of
these is charity" (love). i Cor. xiii. 4-8, 13.
" Love worketh no ill to his neighbor ; therefore
love is the fulfilling of the law." Ram, xiii. 10.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 165

"This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience
toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For
what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your
faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye
do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this
is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were
ye called ; because Christ also suffered for us, leav-
ing us an example that ye should follow his steps ;
who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth ; who, when he was reviled, reviled not
again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."
i Peter ii. 19-23. "Let none of you suffer as
a murderer, as a thief, as a busybody in other
men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Chris-
tian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify
God in this behalf." Ib. Iv. 15, 16. These extracts
clearly set forth the indisputable New Testament
doctrine concerning this supreme virtue and crown-
ing glory of the morality of Primitive Christianity,
and need not be multiplied; and, as before stated,
there is nothing in the entire scripture record that
contradicts or invalidates them, or limits their
scope and application in the least degree.

2. We now need to understand clearly the exact
meaning of these passages, their bearing and moral
force as helps in the development of character and
guides to a divine life. They prescribe duties
towards "the unthankful and evil"; towards ene-
mies, injurers, persecutors, offenders, and sinners
of whatever sort; not alone towards friends, well-
disposed persons, benefactors, and righteous fellow-

166 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

men generally. Common justice dictates that we
love such as are like ourselves, such as love us ;
and that we treat others as they treat us But in
Christian morality we have a higher rule of con-
duct. Here perfect love, which surmounts the
granite pedestal of justice, lays extraordinary obli-
gations upon us obligations which the favored
party has no right to claim, which characterize
pure benevolence even unto enemies and personal
offenders generally. But what is it in such a fel-
low human being that justly assigns him to the
reprehensible class in which he is found which
renders him an enemy or offender ? Not his intrinsic
nature or personal selfhood in itself, but something
in his actions, motives, feelings, which is morally
if not malignantly wrong. It is the will or dispo-
sition or desire to injure or harm another; and
especially such will, disposition, or desire towards
one who has done nothing to deserve such treat-
ment. This proportionally aggravates the guilt of
the enemy or offender. And now what is it in the
sense of the precepts quoted, to love such an one ?
Is it to cherish and feel a passionate fondness for
his person, a desire for reciprocal fondness on his
part, for intimacy andjnutual attachment? Not at
all. That is another kind or form of love ; right
in its place and under proper circumstances. But
the love we are now defining is of a different sort,
It is pure good will. Does it require us to ignore
or underestimate the guilt of an offender in any
case; to approve, encourage, fellowship him in his
sin ? Surely not. Does it forbid our remonstrating

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 167

with him, rebuking him, or restraining him to the
extent of preventing him from doing harm, when
it can be done without injury to him ? No. What
then does it require? This: that we desire and
endeavor to promote his highest good ; to reform
him, curing him of his evil disposition ; to make of
him a friend, a kind, upright, trustworthy man. It
requires that we cherish and manifest only a spirit
of kindness and beneficence towards him, not of
hatred and revenge ; that we do him no harm ; that
we neglect no known means of converting him from
the error of his -ways and of bringing him to the
enjoyment of the highest good possible to him ;
and that we patiently endure whatever suffering,
self-denial, obloquy, martyrdom, may be incidentally
unavoidable in thus faithfully exemplifying this pure
fellow-feeling, benevolence, and charity. The duty
under notice hath this extent and nothing less
sufficeth it.

3. Is this duty, as I have stated it, reasonable
and fitting in the nature of things and in the moral
order of the world ? I will endeavor to show that
it is. Are all human beings created in the divine
image and destined to an immortal and finally holy
existence ? So I have shown. Then every individ-
ual one of them is of inestimable worth, and ought
to be treated as I have set forth, even the guiltiest,
in order to insure to him the attainment of the
highest possibilities of his being. The ultimate
good of each and every one should be sacredly
regarded. Is the doctrine of God's universal Father-
hood true ? And does he treat all human beings as

168 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

his rational and spiritual offspring? If so, we ought
to regard and treat them all accordingly, exercise
love toward them all, " that we may be the children
of the Highest"; be "merciful as he is merciful"
and "perfect as he is perfect." Is the doctrine of
man's universal Brotherhood true? And is the
highest good of each and all the same ? Certainly.
Then it is reasonable to conclude that it is every
one's noblest duty to seek every other one's wel-
fare as he seeks his own. What would be gained
by acting upon any other principle or from any
other motive ? Does it do any good to hate a fel-
low being? Does it benefit either us or him?
Neither a particle, but results in more or less evil
to both. Does it do any good to be careless or
indifferent concerning another's well-being to dis-
regard or ignore in any case his real happiness ?
Never. It is really best for each and every one
that every other should by wise and beneficent
training and discipline be led so to develop and
employ his physical, intellectual, moral, and spirit-
ual capabilities as to enjoy to the utmost what they
are able to contribute to the wealth, beauty, power,
and glory of existence. This is what perfect love
as defined and applied is designed and calculated
to effect, and neither man, angel, Christ, or God
himself, can produce that sublime effect in any
other way.

But it may be objected that perfect love in God
allows if it does not prompt Him to inflict innu-
merable terrible penalties and sufferings upon His
guilty offspring and even to kill them, and why may

ITS CORRUPTIONS. 169

not we do the same under the same inspiration.
Such objection is purely sophistical and misleading.
The cases are not parallel. We cannot imitate our
infinite heavenly Father in the exercise of powers
absolutely above our finite capacities, but only of
those that lie within the sphere of our limited abil-
ity. "He can kill and make alive/ 1 We cannot.
He can, in His vast designs, cause the direst dis-
tresses to come upon His earthly children and turn
them all to the most salutary account, if not in this
life, in that which is to come. We have no power
to produce restorative, reparatory, or sanctifying
results in another state of being, nor even here
beyond certain boundaries. Eternity as well as time
is His field of activity, and His plans reach to issues
far beyond the sphere of our responsibility. There-
fore the assumed analogy between Him and us, so
far as pertains to His larger purposes and opera-
tions, does not exist. Had we God's unlimited
power and wisdom, wherewith to govern affairs in
all possible states of being, nd were we able to
direct all possible consequences of our personal
action as He is, we might then inflict pain and
take life as He does. But, as it is, we may and
ought to act on the same principle and in the same
spirit that He does only in the finite sphere which
we by our very nature are privileged to occupy.
Accordingly we must never presume to impose any
privation, pain, or loss, even on the most guilty,
which we have no power to render salutary and
beneficent. But who ever kills or causes suffering
to a fellow-being in order to better his con-

170 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

dition after death ? It is absurd to suppose such
a case.

But another consideration here intervenes. In
the order of His providence, God takes the life
not only of sinners, but of saints and of multitudes
of innocent children ; so may we, if the objector's
reasoning be sound. If He can do it in love, why
cannot we ? Or again. God as the supreme Ruler
of all things kills every human being, sooner or
later, why may not we kill any one we please ?
The argument proves too much; admits of conclu-
sions at which every one's reason and moral sense
revolt, and so destroys itself. The truth is, death,
or the passing from this to a future life, is a fea-
ture of an infinite divine plan, and in whatever form
it comes, by natural decay, by sickness, or by casu-
alty, it is included in that plan and is to be justi-
fied, as its Author is to be vindicated, in the finally
beneficent and happy issue, which is at last to
crown the working of that plan and fill the uni-
verse with holiness and joy.

A much more plausible argument against the
claim I make for the universal exercise and appli-
cation of the spirit of perfect love, even to enemies
and persistent evil doers, is that which affirms that
we can sometimes save life, liberty, property, or
otherwise serve the common welfare, by taking
life by the capital punishment of hardened crimi-
nals, by the destruction of enemies in war, or in
some way causing harm to offenders, without regard
to their particular well-being and happiness. This is
the plea of expediency, and is based upon the doctrine

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 171

that we may do evil to insure consequent good. I can-
not well deny this, as the world goes, at least in
some cases, and yet I have very little doubt, that
on the whole far more of life, liberty, and property
has been sacrificed than preserved by what is
termed justifiable homicide, injurious self-de-
fence, war, and vindictive punishment in the
history of mankind. But granting the validity of
the argument on the basis of worldly expediency or
advantage, does that make the required exercise of
perfect love less reasonable or obligatory than I
contend for ? Is everything right and best for man-
kind which is convenient and advantageous to all
appearance in this short life? If so, are not injus-
tice, falsehood, and many notorious cruelties right
and best when important ends are to be gained
thereby? Rather is it not better and more Christ-
like to give up our life, liberty, property, than to
be base and iniquitous? Common woricfly patriot-
ism says this; how much more religion, and espe-
cially Christ's religion, which teaches its disciples
to surrender their lives and all temporal goods
rather than betray their principles and lose their
souls in the just condemnation of eternal verities.

Besides, let us remember that pure Christianity
regards the human race as having been created for
progress from very low to very high moral and
spiritual conditions by a process of discipline and
regeneration which should ultimate in that perfect
love which is the grandest attainment of immortal
beings, which makes man most like the all-perfect
Father in heaven. Could such a religion reason-

172 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ably propose anything lower than this, or enjoin
anything less as the summwn bonum of human duty
or the crowning glory of its mortality? Certainly
not ; for had it done so we should have some day
needed a new and nobler dispensation to have per-
fected the righteousness of mankind. As it is,
another dispensation or revelation of a distinctively
higher, more perfect character is neither necessary
nor possible. And if this supreme virtue with the
manifold duties growing out of it is too transcend-
ent tor human beings to exemplify to any great
extent in the present age of the world, ought we
therefore to deem it the less reasonable, or the less
profitable to preach, or the less incumbent on men
to endeavor to practice, or the less to be demanded
of those who profess to be members of Christ's
church and upon whom, as pioneers under him of
human regeneration, he originally and specifically
enjoined it ? Surely not. Alas, what a blot it is
upon a church bearing the name of Christ, that so
small a fraction of its members are obedient to the
requirements of perfect love, or are ready to acknowl-
edge their obligations to obey them.

But I forbear a farther exposition of this incom-
parable subject. A thousand discourses would not
exhaust it, especially in its multiform applications
to human character and conduct in the various
relations of life. I close what I have to say by
commending the considerations presented to your
candid, rational, conscientious judgment; praying,
as the best of all petitions for you and myself, that
we may never rest in the great struggle after holi-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. ITS-

ness and happiness, till, with the help of God's grace
and of all spiritual ministries, we shall have above
all other things "put on charity (love) which is the:
bond of perfectness."

DISCOURSE XIII.

X TEE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN VIRTUE OF

* Ye have heard that it hath been said. An eye for an eye,
and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you. That ye resist
not evil [in this manner] . but whosoever smiteth thee on the
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will
sue thee at the la\v and take away thy coat, let him have thy
cloak also." Matt v 38-40.

Having in my last discourse discussed the subject
of perfect love as the supreme virtue of Primitive
Christianity enjoined by Christ and his Apostles, I
now proceed to a consideration of the legitimate
manifestation of that virtue and of the application
of the moral principle involved therein, in certain
extreme cases of human experience where there is
great temptation to ignore or abandon it. What
those extreme cases are, or the more common ones,
it is my duty to point out with all needful distinct-
ness and perspicuity. They may be in a general
way considered under a twofold classification, to
wit: (i) To resist and punish personal outrage
upon ourselves or our friends by injurious or deadly
force administered by our own hands. (2) To
resort for defence, reparation, and punishment to
governmental interposition and coercion by the use

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 175

of the same injurious and deadly force administered
by so-called magistrates or officers of the law. All
harmful or injurious force is of the same intrinsic
nature as deadly force, and I treat them as the
same in principle and as equally hostile to that
perfect "love which worketh no ill." Instances of
the two kinds specified have always occurred in
human affairs and will occasionally occur until men
shall have learned to overcome evil with good, or
wrong-doers cease "to molest and make afraid."
When they take place and call for correlative action
of some sort on our part, they tempt our lower,
animal nature powerfully, inciting us to resist
punish, and, if possible, bring the offenders to
subjection by actual or threatened violence and
death-dealing power. There is nothing at which
un regenerate and spiritually undisciplined human
beings so revolt as at the doctrine that they must
not fight with some sort of carnal weapons in
defence of themselves or their friends ; in support
of liberty and human rights ; and that they must
not fair back upon organized governmental agencies
backed by the strong arm and weapons of carnal
warfare for the resistance, punishment, and subju-
gation of evil-doing men. All the religions of the
world except that of Christ allow, sanction, and
fully justify such conduct conduct involving physi-
cal violence, injury, and death. So do all the ethical
systems that have gained much acceptance in the
world ; so do all prevailing codes of law and juris-
prudence. And so, indeed, do all popular notions
of honor, valor, and manly self-defence. Hence it

176 -PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

is that so very few people can be found, even in
Christendom, to accept the doctrine of Christian
Non-resistance. And of the few who professedly
acknowledge its truth in theory, a majority, I am
grieved to say, fail to honor it and commend it to
the world by consistent and uncompromising exam-
ple in practical life. Nevertheless, it is the doctrine
of Christ and his Apostles, and was the doctrine of
the Church for at least two hundred years a doc-
trine which its members faithfully illustrated in their
relations to and dealings with each other and their
heathen fellow-men.

Had Christ relaxed his stringent morality in its
application to such extreme cases as I have named,
and allowed his disciples to kill, wound, or other-
wise absolutely harm offenders of a flagrant type,
either directly by their own hands or through the
agencies of worldly civil government, what would
have been the inevitable effect ? ( I ) To invalidate
fatally the fundamental requirement of his religion
to exercise perfect love towards all human beings,
as set forth in my last discourse. For the excep-
tions would have made the rule null and void.

(2) To undermine or greatly vitiate the sublime
ideas which are the bases of that requirement, to
wit: The Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of
man, the harmony of all real human interests, and
the destined holiness and happiness of all mankind.

(3) To endorse the carnal wisdom of this world
which is forever pleading that there are numerous
cases of conflicting interests in human affairs that
render it impossible and foolish for us to love our

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 177

neighbors as ourselves, or to regard their welfare
as our own. (4) To reduce the supreme excellency
of Christian morality to a level with that of ail
other religions and philosophies, and so destroy its
distinctive character. (5) To justify a large por-
tion of the cruel homicides, persecutions, wars, and
vindictive punishments which a degenerate church
has sanctioned and sanctified since its unholy alli-
ance with the state under Constantine in the fourth
century. Were I fairly and fully convinced that
this doctrine of Non-resistance is false, or was not
taught and exemplified by Christ, my sense of logi-
cal and moral consistency would compel me to
abandon the whole superstructure of my peculiar
theology, ethics, and social reform. Nor should I
have one unshaken hope left that the human race
will attain any essentially higher moral state, here
on the earth at least, than the general average of
the past. This may sound like a wail of despair
or the wild extravagance of thoughtless declamation,
but it is to me a well-considered, sober conclusion
of my best judgment. And whoever would listen
candidly to my reasons for this opinion must feel,
I am sure, that they can not be easily confuted.
Many people otherwise worthy of respect and con-
fidence seem to care very little for consistency in
faith or practice, and learned philosophers some-
times aEect to despise it as a slavish weakness of
stinted minds. But I am not ashamed to avow
myself a devotee of rational and moral consistency.
I abominate all detectable incongruities between
the several articles of one's creed, or different

178 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

avowed principles of truth and duty, as I do
between his acknowledged belief or principles and
his deliberate practice. If he professes faith in the
universal Fatherhood of God, in the universal
brotherhood of man, in the absolute moral obliga-
tion of the golden rule and law of love, in the idea
that the highest good of each and all is the same,
and in the immortal nature and destiny of all men ;
if such be 'his professed faith, I insist that he shall
not represent God as a vindictive despot, or man
as a venomous reptile, even when he acts like one ;
as fit only under certain circumstances, to be
despised, maltreated, slaughtered, and, as far as
possible, utterly destroyed. I will not knowingly
indulge myself in any of these theoretical or prac-
tical incongruities and contradictions. This is why
I say so emphatically, that, if compelled to give
up the doctrine of primitive Christian Non-resistance,
my sense of consistency would compel me to aban-
don my whole system of theology, ethics, and soci-
ology, with all its grand hopes and promises for
mankind. Happily, I am troubled with no such
doubts or misgivings, and so am steadfast in my
confessed system of truth and duty. But there are
some misapprehensions respecting this special doc-
trine of Non-resistance, which ought to be cleared
away in order to its just appreciation.

i. Some people understand that Christ addressed
the precepts which enjoin this self-denying virtue to
all mankind indiscriminately, in all conditions and
relations of life, and at all stages of moral and
spiritual development; as if all could and would

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 179

exemplify it, or try to exemplify it, as one of the
primary duties of common worldly morality. They
make the same mistake respecting the requirement
of perfect love to all mankind, friend and foe, of
which these precepts but indicate the legitimate
application. But Christ was wiser than this mis-
apprehension supposes. "He knew what was in
man/' He knew very well that the administrators
of existing civil government would not and could
not obey the law of perfect love, or exemplify the
specific duty springing from it, until society, in its
organic form, should outgrow and abandon all
dernier resorts to deadly force. He knew that no
one could or would live in love with all mankind,
bless and curse not, and perform all similar duties,
so long as selfishness, greed of gain, resentment of
injuries, revenge, and cruelty reigned in his heart.
He knew that no man or class of men, acting in,
depending on, or needing the restraint of sword-
sustained governments, would or could practice the
golden rule and the doctrine of no harmful resist-
ance of evil with evil. Such persons and classes
belong to a moral plane far below that occupied by
Christ far below that which he called his disci-
ples to occupy. He told such plainly that they
could not rise to his required level except they were
born again of the divine spirit, becoming as little
children and taking up the cross daily. Of those
thus re-born, he said, "They are not of the world
even as I am not of the world." And to them,
" Ye are the salt of the earth." " Ye are the light
of the world." James thus states the case from his

180 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

point of view ; " Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures." James i. 18.

It was those here represented who became the
original disciples of Christ. They publicly con-
fessed themselves to be his followers. They con-
stituted the primitive church bearing his name,
which was a divinely appointed though voluntary
association regulated and governed, not, like worldly
civil society, by arbitrary, external authority and
brute force, but by the principles, precepts, and
spirit declared by Christ himself, their teacher
and religious head. The high calling of this church
was to stand morally at the front of the procession
of humanity, to lead it on to a truer righteousness,
to leaven it with regenerating influences, to salt it
with divine principles, to show it "a more excellent
way," and so gradually convert it to pure Chris-
tianity and thereby bring in the kingdom of God.
Christ therefore addressed his sublimest precepts
more particularly to his avowed followers. He
called them emphatically to the exemplification of
his own distinctive righteousness. This was his
only way of salvation from the evils of sin. He
earnestly besought all to become his disciples and
counted all such who from inward conviction and
love were willing to take up their cross and follow
him. But he coerced none. He over-urged none.
He used neither violence nor craftiness to make
proselytes. He flattered no one with prospects of
worldly ease, advantage, or honor. He frankly set
forth the responsibilities, the trials, and difficulties

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 181

they would encounter if they followed him, and
declared that the blessings to be gained thereby
were of a spiritual, heavenly nature, not carnal,
earthly ones. No one was asked to join his ranks
except from purely religious motives and for the
highest ends. But of those who did join them he
demanded fidelity, a corresponding life, self-sacrifice
even to martyrdom should fidelity to his precepts
and principles demand it.

And all this is true today. No one is required
to confess Christ as Master and Lord unless he
can do so in all sincerity, upon the terms plainly
set forth in the Gospels. Nor is any one declining
to do this and choosing to act on a lower moral
plane denied due credit for whatever virtues he may
possess, though they be not up to the standard of
perfect love. But to those who voluntarily assume
the position of disciples of Christ, yet revolt against
his lofty morality and refuse to practice his pre-
cepts, his rebuke still sounds forth ; " Why call ye
me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I
say ?" What can be more reasonable than this, or
appeal more impressively to our highest moral and
religious sentiments ?

Why then should any cry out that Christ's
morality is too high and strict for the world, when
it was never meant for worldly-minded people ; that
civil society is not prepared for it, as if it was ever
intended for unchistianized civilians ; that we can
not carry on government, politics, commerce, war,
etc, on Christian principles, as if the Master
expected we could while enslaved to the customs,

18.2 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

fashions, and popular practices of the unregenerate
world ! It is indeed impossible for those to act
upon Christian principles who have no conception
of such principles, no aspiration to be governed by
them, and no purpose or hope that they themselves
or others shall live according to them this side of
the grave. But must this be deemed true in regard
to sincere believers in Christ ; such as he pre-
scribed his holy precepts for ; those who are really
born of the Spirit and are in the true discipleship
of Jesus ? God forbid ! Their ruling faith, aspira-
tion, hope, must be of a far higher type and order.
On the other hand there are professed non-
resistants and friends of peace just as unreasonable
as those referred to who make no such profession.
They assume that the indiscriminate multitude can
be brought to practice that "love which worketh
no ill " as easily as they can be induced to espouse
the Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Woman's Rights,
and other secular moral reforms. More absurdly
still, they call on civil governments, legislatures,
and all kinds of milito-political authorities, to act
on the highest principles of peace and good will,
as if it were as possible for them to do this as it
is to act on their own lower plane of worldly policy
and reserved injurious, death- dealing force. In the
very nature of things they cannot do this without a
prior radical regeneration of human opinions, feel-
ings, customs, and institutions ; a regeneration to
be attained only through a long process of enlight-
enment, moral growth, and spiritual development.
This gross absurdity exhibits itself to an almost

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 183

ridiculous extent when in the midst of great wars,
governments and military authorities are appealed
to in deprecatory tones, to stop the tornado of
deadly violence at once, "beat their swords into
ploughshares," and inaugurate the reign of brother
hood and peace. The result proposed in such a
case is grandly good, but the assumption that it is
possible under the circumstances is pitifully puerile
if not ludicrous. Christ never contemplated any
such instantaneous, wholesale, impracticable method
of converting the world from its harm-plotting, war-
promoting, death-dealing spirit and habit to the love
and practice of kindliness, fraternity, harmony. He
began to build his moral superstructure at the
foundation, in the renewing of individual characters
and lives, by the power of the sp ; rit of peace and
love and not at the apex. So should we.

2. Another misapprehension of non-resistant pre-
cepts is that arising from emphasizing the mere
letter of them instead of their vital principle and
spirit. Thus we must understand them to require,
when one cheek is smitten, the actual offering of
the other, as if to invite the assailant to smite that
also ; and when one article of clothing is taken
unjustly from us we should immediately give up
another to the aggressor. A little reflection, aided
by the example of Christ, shows us that the pas-
sages referred to represent the principle and spirit
which are to govern us in cases of insult, outrage,
and injustice, however inflicted ; that is, of patient
endurance of the wrong done us, though repeated,
without resorting to the old law of retaliation, " An

184 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, wounding for
wounding, and life for life." The meaning of the
old ordinance abrogated by Christ is plain, to wit:
that we may rightfully harm others, defensively or
punitively, to the extent that they harm or attempt
to harm us. This rule of conduct Christ absolutely
forbids. His disciples must not resist in any such
way. They must not retaliate or do harm to any
one, whatsoever the provocation or temptation to
such action may be. By that inhibition his disci-
ples are bound to order their lives.

Others still see or think they see in these same
precepts an injunction requiring entire moral and
physical passivity towards evil doers, under all cir-
cumstances. We are not even to reprove, rebuke,
remonstrate with such, or protest against their con-
duct, or oppose them in any way. No such infer-
ence can be drawn from the passages themselves,
and it is disproved by their author's whole life and
example. They do not prohibit the use of physical
force, if it be uninjurious and beneficent ; if it take
the form of insistence, compulsion, or restraint that
is calculated to prevent harm to the evil-disposed
or others, or to benefit all concerned, according to
the law of perfect love. It is the spirit of the
requirement that is to govern in all cases and of
that there need be no misapprehension.

3. Still others there are who maintain that the
particular texts under review inculcate cowardice,
meanness, and unmanly submission to all sorts of
insult and aggression ; nay, more, that they encour-
age insolence, injustice, and personal violence ; and

AND ITS COBRUPTIONS. 185

so they scorn and reject them and the whole sys-
tem of ethics of which they and corresponding
scriptures form no inconsiderable part. This I
count a reckless perversion of the truth. Do such
passages as forbid the resistance of evil with deadly
or harmful force imply that such evil is not wrong,
is not to be exposed and rebuked; or that those
committing it are to be excused, absolved from all
blame, and treated as if they had committed no
offence against God and man, or that they are in
no proper sense the subjects of salutary and con-
dign chastisement and retribution? Not at all.
Did Christ ever forbid, by precept or example, the
just rebuke, condemnation, and denunciation of any
kind of wickedness by whomsoever wrought? On
the other hand, he taught and practiced quite the
contrary. Witness the admonition and censure he
repeatedly administered, even to his disciples, and
the reprobation with which he castigated at differ-
ent times the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites of
his day. Did he himself ever cower or cringe in
the presence of danger or hostile power, ever shrink
from duty, ever show timidity or fear, ever act an
unmanly part in any portion or circumstance of his
earthly career? Never. Did he ever counsel his
followers to tremble before wicked, haughty, malig.
nant men, to basely abandon the post of duty, to
abstain from proclaiming the truth and maintaining
the standard of righteousness, even in the face of
persecution and death ? Far from it. He rather
taught them to be brave and dauntless in battling
for the good and true, to adhere to their principles

186 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and bear their testimonies at all hazards, to prose-
cute their work amid perils and hardships and hos-
tile opponents in a self-sacrificing spirit, even unto
martyrdom. Is there anything mean, base, ignoble,
unmanly, in all this? A brutish carnalist might
say, "yes, under extreme circumstances; if life or
great interests were at stake and might be saved
or preserved by slaying a murderous assailant or a
cruel tyrant." But I say, nay. It is noble, heroic,
Christlike to suffer wrongfully rather than do wrong,
to forfeit life rather than take life, to confront death
with none but spiritual weapons and God's shelter-
ing help for a defence, to say fearlessly to an
assaulting persecutor, oppressor, would-be murderer,
"You are my brother-man, child like myself of a
heavenly Father, and I can do you no harm, much
less take your life. Will you murder me or those
that are dear to me ? Will you stain your own soul
with the innocent blood of one of your friends, who
wishes you no evil, who is ready to die rather than
injure you?" Is such fidelity to principle, such
devotion to humanity, such loyalty to Christ cow-
ardly, inglorious, contemptible? Palsied be the
tongue that dare utter such a slander!

But it is furthermore supposed and sometimes
urged that this Christian doctrine of perfect love
carried to this extreme the doctrine of Non-resist-
ance offers encouragement a bounty, indeed, to
robbers, assassins, and all sorts of aggressors upon
the lives and rights of the innocent and worthy, by
removing the fear on the part of such of being stricken
down and put to death. To spare such and hold

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 187

their welfare sacred and inviolable is to stimulate
their baser nature and promote their wicked designs.
This is an assumption incapable of proof. In a large
majority of cases, as history proves, the resort to
deadly force is a failure as a preventive of vice
and crime, and never converts the evil doer or
saves a human soul. Nay, such resort and its mani-
fold concomitants tend to keep alive the spirit of
violence in the world and to multiply rather than
decrease the vices and crimes that afflict and debase
humanity and retard the coming of the kingdom of
righteousness, brotherhood, and peace. Satan can
not cast out Satan. Only Christ and his Gospel
can do that. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred,
such morally heroic, self-forgetting goodness as I
have indicated the Christlike spirit and attitude
would humble, disarm, and overcome the assailant
and often open the way to his reformation. It has
done it in manifold instances and would do it in
manifold more, if tried in confidence and holy love.
Oh, that professed Christians would universally adopt
and trust the Saviour's method of overcoming evil
with good, of dealing with offenders, of reforming
the vicious, of saving the lost ! Only let unflinching
courage and pure benevolence be united and coop-
erate earnestly with each other under the divine
guidance and they constitute the mightiest, the
most quickening, regenerating power in the universe.
Should they ever fail to touch the heart and restrain
the hand of an assailant and the martyrdom of the
victim ensue, their ultimate moral victory, in the
spirit world, if not on earth, would be the more

188 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

triumphant and glorious Nay, I can but believe
that the heroism and self-sacrifice in such cases
displayed would increase the sum of human virtue
here, and promote the spiritual progress and ulti-
mate redemption of humanity in time as well as in
eternity.

O heaven-sent Teacher, thou ' light of the world,"
fc The way and the truth and the life '" :

Thy banner of love long ago was unfurled,
Rebuking all carnage and strife

Thy church thou didst found on the earth to protest.

By precept and practice like thine.
Against ever}' death-dealing, vengeful behest

Long sanctioned as wise and divine

" Resist not with evil the injurer's hand,

But rather his wrongs meekly bear ;
By goodness and mercy his vices withstand,

And still for his happiness care."

Thus spake thou, dear Lord, from the mount and the cross,

And taught us as one from above ;
O help us, we pray thee, whatever the loss,

To walk in thy pathway of love.

DISCOURSE XIV.

CHRISTIAN EQUALITY JLYD CIVIL G-OVERNXEXT.

4 - Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to
God the things that are God's." Mark xii. 17

fc * My kingdom is not of the world/' John xviii. 36

" The powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever there-
fore resisteth the po\\er, resisteth the ordinance of God."
Rom. xiii. I, 2.

"We ought to obey God rather than man." Acts v. 29

I could not do full justice to the primitive Chris-
tian doctrine of Non-resistance as I understand it
without stating and explaining the relation in which
it places those who embrace it to civil government.
To clearly comprehend that relation we must begin
its exposition at the the very foundation of human
nature, and of organized human society with its
various institutions. What is generically and abso-
lutely natural cannot be annihilated or wholly sup-
pressed by any finite power. But much that is thus
natural can be varied and modified as to its form
and expression almost to infinity. Again, whatever
is generically and absolutely natural must manifest
itself, act itself out, to some extent, somehow, some-
where, sometime. But the degree, manner, place,
and time of its manifestation can be, as indicated,
indefinitely diversified, by reason of the different
conditions and circumstances under which it takes-

190 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

place. Now let us apply these general truths to the
original constitution of man, to human society, and
to organized institutions. First, there is the individ-
ual human being, body, soul, and spirit, male and
female. The male can by no possibility be made
female nor the female be made male, however alike
they may be rendered in many respects. There is
probably an intrinsic distinction between the two
which will last as long as they have being. So of
individuality. There is something generically and
absolutely peculiar in one person which renders him
or her a distinct entity, separate from another and from
all others. No two are exactly alike. They may be
very much alike, in some cases almost indistinguish-
able; yet are they not the same but different
individuals. They always will be so as long as they
exist ; it is in their very nature.

We look again and find that all human beings,
male or female, have by nature certain appetites,
propensities, passions, sentiments, faculties, which
are the springs of all action and the counterchecks
of each other. They are not equally powerful in
all, yet they exist in all, active or inactive, in vary-
ing degrees of excitability. There they are, and
they cannot be utterly extinguished without extin-
guishing the being itself. And they ought not to
be extinguished, only modified, regulated, perfected.

In consequence of these native springs and recip-
rocal counterchecks of human action, all under the
control of divine wisdom, we have such a world as
there is. Nothing comes to pass by chance ; nothing
exists but what is produced by an active cause

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 191

behind it ; and there is nothing which is not directed
and overruled by the divine government in some
way for good. Do we see sexual attractions and
attachments, marriages, and thence families? This
is natural, and as such is an ordinance of God, the
Author of nature. Do we see people coming
together in all sorts of associated relationship for
all sorts of purposes? This is an outgrowth of
man's social nature, ever working under such condi-
tions as at any time exist. Hence the smallest
group and the largest empire. Do we see physical
strength, industry, business enterprise, wealth, intel-
ligence, and religion taking on definite forms and
developing manifold activities ? They all have their
origin in human nature ; that is the fountain head
of them all.

And now I ask, What is the aggregate product
of these forces, activities, and their adjuncts ? It is
what we call civilization. And civilization, therefore,
is the average advance of mankind in their social
characteristics, from primal simplicity, crudeness,
savageism, towards an ideal state of intelligence,
refinement, virtue, and spiritual attainment. It is
otherwise termed civil society, or, if you please,
political society, when represented in the different
tribes, states, and nations of the earth. Civil society
localized, includes all the smaller bodies politic, asso-
ciations, partnerships, families, individuals within its
territorial limits, good, bad, and indifferent, whether
they will or not. Man is a governmental being by
nature, as well as a social, intellectual, religious, or
otherwise endowed one. He has an instinct and

192 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

capacity for order, law, and ruling agencies of some
sort, in all his associative operations. Hence govern-
ment like marriage is an ordinance of God, because
it is the legitimate outcome of the nature of man
\\hereof God is the author. As the most imperfect
type of married life is better than lawless commin-
gling of the sexes, so the poorest of governments are
better than no government at all.

But what is the specific function of civil govern-
ment ? It is to maintain and keep in order the
average of civilization attained by general society at
any given date or age, to repress outrage and misrule
below that average, and to promote the improvement
of its constituents so far as public opinion and com-
mon cooperation render this practicable. Further
than this civil government cannot go, even though
its officials and representatives at any time might
desire to do so. Whatever is done to elevate and
benefit mankind above and beyond the general level,
must be done by individuals, outside associations, and
divine providence, not by governmental action.

We come now to the subject of this discourse :
The relation of Christ, his disciples and church, to
the cardinal activities which pertain to civilization,
to civil society, and especially to civil government.
Does Primitive Christianity aim to abolish physical
force ? No ; but by wise modifications to render it
harmless and beneficent. Does it aim to abolish
productive industry? No; but only to render it
useful and conducive to the highest good of
all men. Does it aim to abolish business enter-
prise, mechanical ingenuity, agriculture, manufac-

AND ITS CORRUPTION'S. 193

tures, commerce, etc.? No; but to render them
fraternal, benevolent, and subservient to the gen-
eral welfare. Does it aim to abolish property,
wealth, worldly possessions ? No ; but only to
conform their production, distribution, uses, and
final disposal to the law of human brotherhooJ.
Does it aim to abolish education, learning, literature,
science, art, philosophy ? No ; but to purify and
ennoble them, and make them in the highest degree
useful to all classes and conditions of people. Does
it aim to abolish natural religion or the common
moralities of life ? No ; but to elevate and perfect
them by higher divine revelations, inspirations, ethi-
cal principles, and practical virtues. Does it aim
to abolish marriage, or the family relation, or volun-
tary association, or society at large, or civilization,
or political government and institutions ? No ; but
by all its spiritual and moralizing influences to regen-
erate them as fast as it can and improve them to
the utmost of their respective capabilities. It is, in
fine, to perfect them and thereby superinduce the
highest possible moral order, social harmony, and
fraternal good will throughout the earth, yea, in all
spheres of human existence.

But how does Primitive Christianity propose to
prosecute and fulfil this grand mission? Not by
lowering itself to the moral level of society as it is,
and of civil government under existing forms, with
their multiform institutions and activities, while still
barbarous, or semi-barbarous, crude, and at best
radically wrong in important respects. This would
be to falsify itself, apostatize from its high calling,

194 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and defeat its professed design. It would thus
become the mere concubine of the world and lose
its power to carry it forward one step beyond its
present defective religions and moral philosophies.
The devotees of such religions and philosophies are
content to subsist and fatten on the patronage of
any government that can profit by their influence.
Not so Primitive Christianity. It occupies vastly
higher ground. It unfurls its banner on the moun-
tain top, far above the tented field of the best civil
government which has ever yet been set up on the
earth. It proposes a far better order of social and
civil life than has ever yet been actualized under
heaven, even that divine order whose " officers shall
be peace and its exactors righteousness/' and under
whose sway " violence shall no more be heard in the
land, wasting nor destruction within its borders " ;
whose "walls shall be salvation and its gates praise/'
For it proclaims that law of perfect love which
works no ill to any man, and compromises with
nothing contrary to that law ; it commands its disci-
ples not to oppose evil with evil but to overcome
it with good; and requires them to be "the salt of
the earth" and "the light of the world;" the first-
fruits of a radical and universal regeneration, and the
pioneers of the human race to their destined holi-
ness, harmony, and bliss.

But to be able to serve such a grand and glorious
purpose as this, those enlisted for the work, Christ's
true followers in the aggregate, his church must
be mindful of two things : (i) Not to let the world
ensnare, dismantle, and overpower them ; and (2) not

AXD ITS CORRUPTION'S. 195

to be themselves a detriment or hindrance to society
at large or to civil government or to any other exist-
ing institutions in the prosecution of their own
proper work on their own proper plane for the tem-
porary good of mankind; agencies which mankind
must have in an imperfect form until thoroughly con-
verted to and established in the supreme excellence
of Primitive Christianity. These are important and
difficult tasks to perform ; and it is no wonder that
there have been such awkward attempts and pitiful
failures in regard to them on the part of professsed
Christians. It has been like sailing between Scylla
and Charybdis ; often a dash against one rock or the
other; the church sometimes becoming the too! of
the state by yielding tamely to its unjust and wicked
exactions, and sometimes making the state its tool
by invoking its sword to assist in furthering its inter-
ests and inaugurating the kingdom of God on the
earth ; now trying to revolutionize existing govern-
ment by force of arms, and again to obtain possession
of it by political intrigue and manoeuvre. But
primitive Christian morality was pre-eminently wise,
holy, and promotive of human progress in this
regard. Let us note its capital points :

(i) It recognized civil governments as natural,
God-ordained, useful, and necessary on their own
plane; therefore to be respected and not to be
treated contemptuously nor violently resisted, even
when oppressive, persecuting, and outrageously
wicked in their administration. They were to be
cheerfully obeyed when they were in the right, con-
formed to in all matters of morally indifferent detail

196 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and usage, and submitted to without forcible rebellion
in cases where their requirements contravened the
divine law, and where conscience should therefore
forbid obedience to them. In such cases Non-resist-
ance should be practiced on two grounds of duty:
( i ) That the perfect law of love prompted and
enjoined its application to governmental evil-doers
as well as to individual offenders; and (2) That
proper regard for the natural office and function of
government demanded it. Hence Christ said " Ren-
der unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," that is
to worldly, civil government under all circumstances
its due tribute of respect and peaceable submission ;
and "to God the things that are God's"; that is, all
duties owed to Him supreme homage and obedi-
ence. Thus Jesus, when called upon to pay customs
to the Roman power, although he did not deem the
demand wholly just, complied, in order to avoid
offence against the established civil authority.
Hence also Paul said, " Rulers are not a terror to
good works but to the evil," that is, such is their
natural and God-designed purpose. "Wherefore ye
must needs be subject not only for wrath, but for
conscience' sake." "Render therefore to all their
dues ; tribute to whom tribute ; custom to whom
custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."
Rom. xiii. 3, 5, 7. Furthermore the same apostle
directs that "supplications, prayers, intercessions,
giving of thanks be made for all men ; for kings and
all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."
I Tim. ii. I, 2. Again: "Put them in mind to be

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 197

subject to principalities and powers, to obey magis-
trates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil
of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, showing
meekness to all men." Titns in. i. 2. And Peter
said: " Submit yourself unto every ordinance of man
for the Lord's sake ; whether it be to the king as
supreme or unto governors, as unto them that are
sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and
for the praise of them that do well. 1 ' " Honor all
men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the
king." i Peter \\. 13, 14, 17.

2. But there is another consideration to be noted
in this connection Civil governments in those
early days were not Christian. They were notori-
ously anti-Christian, and the best of them were cer-
tain to be anti-Christian, more or less, for ages ;
as in fact they all are in important respects to this
day. In their very nature it was and is impossible
for them to be better than their average constitu-
ency; to act from higher principles than public sen-
timent for the time being will accept, sanction, and
sustain. Hence, as governments are but the expo-
nents and executors of public sentiment in the general
society whose affairs they administer, they would
naturally be the oppressors and persecutors of Christ-
ians so long as these were a despised and hated
minority. Moreover, hostile religionists, philoso-
phers, and the baser elements of general society
would stimulate their political officials and leaders
to oppression and persecution. In such cases the
first thing likely to be clone by those in authority
would be to decree that the Christians should

198 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

abandon their religion, cease to teach it, and refrain
from all efforts to extend its influence and power.
Now if the primitive Christian doctrine had been
" Obey civil governments implicitly and unqualifiedly,
whatever they may require " then there would have
been a speedy end of all Christian teaching, of the
Christian conscience, and of Christianity itself;
aye, and of all human progress thereby promoted.
But Christ and his representatives provided against
such a fatal issue. "Behold I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves," said he, "be ye there-
fore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But
beware of men ; for they will deliver you up to the
councils, and they will scourge you in their syna-
gogues. And ye shall be brought before governors
and kings for my name's sake." "But when they
persecute you in this city flee ye into another."
"And fear not them which kill the body but are not
able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. x. 16-
1 8, 23, 28. When Peter and John were commanded
by the Jewish rulers " not to speak at all nor teach
in the name of Jesus," their rejoinder was, "Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you
more than unto God, judge ye." Acts iv. 18, 19.
So throughout the New Testament we find this
point of duty plainly prescribed : to disobey gov-
ernment whereinsoever it required them to renounce,
or violate, or compromise their religious principles,
but always with unresisting, meek submission to
whatever persecutions or penalties might be imposed
upon them.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 199

3 There is yet another important duty relative
to civil government which Christian morality pre-
scribes ; and that is, not to invoke the aid of its
military and penal power in any case whatsoever, nor
assume any of its responsibility for resorts to injuri-
ous and deadly force. If Christians could consist-
ently do. this, their most central doctrine of perfect
love and their primal virtue of abstaining from all
resistance of evil with evil would be at once nullified
and made void, and their morality would sink
instantly to the level of that of Jewish rabbis and
Pagan philosophers, it would virtually disappear
from among men. Then they would no longer " be
the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world."
Accordingly we find no precept in the Xew Testa-
ment instructing men to seek political office, prose-
cute cases of law, or call on the existing government
to lend them penal or military assistance for any
purpose, even to defend property, honor, or life.
Nor do we find there a word of advice in regard to
seeking governmental aid for the promotion of
Christianity in the world. It is however evident
from the nature of their religion, and from the
example of the apostles, that if Christians were
taken into custody by the civil magistrate or
arraigned before the civil courts at the instigation
of their enemies, they might rightfully plead their
cause and claim all the privileges in the way of a
fair trial and decent treatment that impartial justice
would dictate. They could also innocently ask the
governing authorities, by formal petition or other-
wise, for any intervention or action on their part

200 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

not contrary to their own avowed Christian princi-
ples. They were, moreover, in no wise forbidden
to serve the government in any capacity which
required no sacrifice of principle and involved no
personal responsibility for governmental resorts to
deadly force or other unchristian practice. But
there were few opportunities for such service in
the early centuries of our era, and they are not
numerous now. Christ himself eschewed on all
occasions the functions, honors, and emoluments of
civil office. He would not be a "judge or divider,"
even when solicited, nor allow himself before Pilate
to be deemed an aspirant for any earthly throne
His apostles after his departure laid aside all ambi-
tion for temporal power. Some of them sought it
for him and themselves early in their discipleship,
but never after becoming fully imbued with his
spirit, and fully conscious of their mission. Paul
rebuked the Corinthian church sharply for resort-
ing to litigation in the civil courts "There is
utterly a fault among you/' he said, "because ye go
to law one with another. Why do ye not rather
endure wrong? Why do ye not suffer yourselves
to be defrauded ? " i Cor. vi. 7.

Thus have I shown the relation in which Primi-
tive Christianity teaches its true disciples to stand
to civil governments, and the duty of non-participa-
tion in and disobedience to them, in cases involving
a violation of Christian principles, and of peaceable
submission to their wrongful exactions, persecutions,
and judicial inflictions. I have also inferentially
shown what the perfect Christian morality requires

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 201

of its professors in all their relations to worldly men ;
personal, domestic, social, political, civil, and govern-
mental. And now I ask, what would be the charac-
ter and influence of any one who should exemplify
this morality in the several respects and to the
extent indicated, as perfect love requires? And
what would be the character and influence of a
church composed of members who were true and
faithful, in principle and practice, to that high
standard of truth and duty? Would not such char-
acter and influence, even in the case of a single
individual, be good, noble, heavenly? Would such
an individual, or a church made up of such individ-
uals retard human progress or hinder the work of
civilizing and regenerating society and the world *
Would they be a detriment to the government under
which they might live ? Would not persons of the
moral and religious type I have indicated do quite
as much good to a town, state, or nation, and at
as little cost, as any equal number who should
manipulate and manage party politics, vote, hold
office, execute legal penalties, and fight in and for
the government ? In the name of truth, justice,
and common sense, I ask if they would not be the
very best class of subjects which a town, state, or
nation could have within its jurisdiction ? These
inquiries could receive only an affirmative answer
from any reflecting, candid, rightly disposed individ-
ual. Yet there are many professing Christians as
well as non-Christians who imagine that little or
nothing can be done for human progress and the
world's betterment except through the administra-

202 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

tive agencies of civil government; that the great
work of purifying and elevating public opinion, the
public conscience and morals, such as Christ and
his Apostles wrought, is of very little account.
They must put their particular party into posses-
sion of the governmental purse, sceptre, and sword,
and then the right sort of laws would be enacted
and enforced, and all who could be persuaded would
be compelled to keep step to the music of the grand
millennial march. With such, moral and religious
forces avail little and Christian Non-resistance is
what Henry Ward Beecher once contemptuously
called it, " Christian nonsense." Nevertheless, I
should be unworthy my acknowledged Lord and
Master and faithless to my most solemn and sub-
lime convictions of truth and duty, if I could be
sneered or frightened out of my position.

Yet I presume not to deride, despise, or denounce
those who are wedded to the existing civilistic and
politico-military system of worldly government. If
they honestly occupy that comparatively low moral
plane and neither see nor aspire to anything higher,
let them do the best they can for God and human-
ity with the machinery there at their command.
But I wish it to be unmistakably understood that
I regard the primitive Christian morality vastly
superior to that exemplified by them, and claim that
those who adopt it and live according to its require-
ments are the most advanced and the wisest leaders

of mankind to their divinely ordained destiny. Yea,
that such are the most effective promoters of all
that is intrinsically good in general society and in

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. SOS

civil government as now administered ; while at the
same time they reach farthest forward towards that
glorious consummation of the divine purpose which
is the fulfilment of the Saviour's prayer, "Thy king-
dom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven/'

DISCOURSE XV.

OX TEE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN VIRTUE OF
PERSONAL PURITY.

* That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wicked-
ness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile
the man." Mark vii. 20-25.

" k Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

2 Cor, vii. i.

" As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all
manner of conversation/' i Peter i. 15

" Every man that hath this hope in him purifyeth himself."

i John iii. 3.

There were religious and moral philosophies before
the advent of Christ which inculcated the doctrine
of Personal Purity and enjoined its practical exem-
plification upon their avowed adherents. In some
respects his morality agreed with theirs on this
subject; but in others it differed, bring less ascetic
and reclusive but more spiritual. And my claim
for its superiority and pre-eminence as a primitive
Christian virtue or element of character is based
upon this ground and not on the ground of its
absolute originality and intrinsic difference from all
other forms of the same thing. What then are we

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 205

to understand Personal Purity to be, as a part of
the morality taught and required by Primitive
Christianity ? Purity is freedom from improper and
foreign admixtures from what defiles or contami-
nates any given substance. In morals it is freedom
from evil accompaniments from what is corrupt
and vile, and Personal Purity is the freedom of the
individual from unclean lusts, practices, habits,
from disorderly sensual desires and undue indulgence
of the passions and appetites. In my analysis of
the virtue under notice as related to human charac-
ter and conduct, there are five distinct forms in
which it finds expression, as there are five forms
of impurity to be recognized and abjured. Let us
consider these in a certain prescribed order, as
follows:

I. Sexual .impurity . This includes adultery, for-
nication, and all kinds of lasciviousness or lewdness
all sorts of illicit and licentious intercourse
between the male and female sexes. If I under-
stand the New Testament Scriptures, Jesus and
his apostles taught ( i ) that marriage between one
man and one woman is natural, right, and honor-
able, in the ordinary course of human relationship ;
(2) that celibacy is wisest and best under such
circumstances as render marriage overburdensome
or for special reasons undesirable; (3) that all
sexual intimacies of married persons with others-
than wife or husband are out of divine order and
adulterous; (4) that persistent adultery is the only-
justifiable cause for divorce; (5) that the celibate
or unmarried should abstain from all sexual cohabi-

206 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

tation, lascivious conduct, and incontinent abuses.
In the early Christian days this code of sexual
morality was regarded as over-strict and impracti-
cable by the great mass of people who occupied the
common plane of lustful indulgence in these mat-
ters, as it is still so regarded by such, even in
Christendom. So is much of the primitive Chris-
tian requirement in other particulars, as I show
elsewhere in this series of discourses. But it was
given for the edification and observance of those
who were the sincerely pledged followers of Christ
as the pioneers in a new order of life on the earth
and in the work of human regeneration ; not for
worldly-minded, sensual men of any sort religion-
ists, philosophers, and civilizers bearing any name
who were willingly committed and bound to a lower
standard of action. To their own masters they
stand or fall. If they choose to follow other leaders
than Christ, and be governed by other lawgivers,
or by other rules or customs than those sanctioned
by him, they are free to do so, but they must take
the consequences. The so-called disciples of Christ,
however, are bound to obey his injunctions and
precepts in this as in other things, or they falsify
their profession and act as traitors to him whom
they avowedly serve. Yet it ought to be shown,
as I think may be done, that even these are not
required to do anything unreasonable or contrary
tp the highest good of themselves or others. Is
there anything opposed to sound judgment, extrav-
agant, or unbeneficent in this sexual morality of
Christ, as I have defined and applied it-? It is

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 207

indeed high, pure, far above and beyond the prac-
tice of the world at large, and difficult of attain-
ment, requiring much self-discipline and restraint
of the lower passions of human nature. What
would it be worth if it were not so? Let us pur-
sue this inquiry in detail.

Does not reason fortified by experience teach
that marriage as a general rule is best for mankind,
as founded in the instincts of human nature and as
conducive to human virtue and happiness ? Does
it not teach that monogamatic marriage the union
of one man and one woman in connubial bonds
is more orderly, healthful, and joy-promoting than
polygamy, or morganatic union, or complex wedlock
of any kind ? Does it not teach that adulterous
sexual intimacies make the parties concerned less
contented and happy than others, and that they
render the condition of such less desirable on the
whole than that of those not given to such practices ?
Does it not teach that unmarried persons lose rather
than gain in body, mind, and spirit, by fornication,
prostitution, self-pollution, sodomy, or any kind of
unchaste, lascivious habits or practices ? Alas, what
wails of wretchedness, of despair even, come up
from the millions of those who have suffered the
bitter consequences of acting contrary to the re-
quirements of the sexual morality of the primitive
Gospel ,of Christ. But who ever suffered from
scrupulous conformity to them, except it may
have been some wholesome temporary self-denial
which was afterwards recompensed by incalculable
good?

208 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

But some persons will say the doctrine is good,
but there are many who cannot practice it ; who
cannot control their animal passions and hold them-
selves under the required restraint Perhaps; yet
would they ask the heavenly Father to repeal or
relax his holy laws ? Would they have Christ grant
them license for their lusts ? And if such license
were granted, or if God's laws were annulled, would
they be permanently benefited thereby? They may
have their own way, but, I repeat, they must take
the results of doing so. " Experience keeps a dear
school/* but there are those who will learn in no
other. It is sometimes a long and bitter course of
tuition in this school that teaches some very simple
lessons. Try it, ye who will, and, when you gradu-
ate, confess that Christ's school, with its yoke and
burden, is the easier and the lighter.

Another may say that the preacher must not pass
by that point of this morality which allows of but
one cause for divorce, to wit: sexual infidelity.
That certainly is of doubtful validity. Answer: I
know that in ancient times, and in modern times
also, several other causes have been deemed suffi-
cient to justify a dissolution of the marriage covenant.
In the former a husband had power to put away
his wife almost at his own pleasure. Even the
Mosaic law granted large liberty of that sort.
Christ knew this, but did not sanction it did not
deem it a proper rule for his followers and church.
And he tells us why (See Matt. xix. 2-9). I
know also that marriage is now widely regarded as
merely or mainly a civil contract, sanctionable and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 209

revocable by civil enactment. Let those who regard
it in this light, deeming the statutes of men their
supreme law, fix the matter to suit society as it is.
Let them marry and unmarry after the fashion of
the world for the time being and abide by the
results. But let those professing to be Christians
learn to marry and unmarry as their Master directs,
and maintain the sanctity of the relationship in the
spirit of his teachings. He did not regard marriage
among his followers as a purely civil agreement,
but as a divinely ordered religious covenant, to be
entered into from holy motives, to be sacredly kept
and never annulled except by the open, persistent,
unrepentant marital infidelity of one or both the
parties involved. Separations for just causes are
not forbidden or condemned in the New Testament,
but divorce^ save for the one cause named, is dis-
allowed.

But is it not hard, one may say, for the innocent
party in case of separation to be denied the privi-
lege of marrying again during the natural lite-time
of the guilty one ? Very likely, in some cases. A
great many wholesome duties are hard but are not
to be ignored or evaded for that reason. I believe
this to be a wholesome duty and one conducive of
the highest good to humanity. If a Christian by
some mistake has become entangled in a marriage
which proves burdensome or intolerable, let it be
endured with the best grace possible; but if it
become too oppressive and odious to be further
borne, let the sufferer nobly resolve not to attempt
a second experiment of the same kind contrary to

210 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

his Master's injunction. As for those who choose
to set Christ at naught and to act on a more accom-
modating moral plane, let them try what experiments
in marriage and divorce they please and learn wis-
dom thereby. For my own part I have no doubt
that the primitive doctrine of Christ upon this sub-
ject is the wisest and best for the permanent good
of mankind, and the only one to be practiced by
those who would be his faithful disciples.

2. Gustatory Impurity. This includes drunken-
ness, gluttony, and all excesses or abuses of the
natural appetite for food and drink intemperance
of every kind and name and all abnormal stimula-
tion of the physical system. I do not claim that
Jesus and his immediate ministers taught total
abstinence from all intoxicating beverages ; for I do
not believe any such claim can be sustained. Nor do
I claim that they taught any specific system of dietet-
ics, such as, before and since their time, have been
prescribed by certain religionists and philosophers
of worthy eminence. John the Baptist went far
beyond Christ in the direction of regulating the use
of meats and drinks. This is evident from the
record. But we must not infer that the Master or
his Apostles ever opposed or. in any way disparaged
Nazaritish simplicity or abstemiousness in respect
to intoxicating beverages, dietetic indulgences, or
physiological habits generally. They never did.
Paul plainly inculcated the duty of abstinence from
the use of meat which might cause others to stum-
ble in the pathway of life. And this is the prin-
ciple upon which Christians must adopt and urge

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 211

the pledge of total abstinence from all intoxicants.
I cannot put it upon any other ground. I cannot
honestly affirm that all such liquors are poisons
per se ; nor that they are under all circumstances
injurious to the human system ; nor that if used in
strict moderation they would do serious harm. But
I at the same time believe that their use is not
necessary to the health and well-being of men, that
they can be safely dispensed with, that under exist-
ing conditions the example of using them is a dan-
gerous temptation to millions, and that, therefore,
it is an imperative Christian duty .to abjure them
as beverages altogether.

But why, it may be asked, did not Christ and the
evangelists take that ground ? Because it was in
their day unnecessary, and because their principles
involved the duty of taking it, whenever, in the
experience of mankind, it should become necessary.
The distillation of alcohol was then unknown, and
I deem it safe to affirm that in the present age,
under existing forms of civil and social life, the
facilities and enticements to an excessive use or
gross abuse of intoxicants have multiplied ten, fifty,
or a hundred fold. Hence sobriety and temperance
cannot be maintained in the face of these manifold
temptations, without the stringent application of
the rule of total abstinence from all that can intoxi-
cate. Nor can I doubt that were Christ now in the
flesh, his own cardinal principles of truth and duty
would require him to adopt this rule.

But notwithstanding the different state of things
In their times, the testimonies of Christ and his

212 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

followers were stern and uncompromising against
drunkenness, gluttony, and all sorts of revelry.
Jesus himself, in describing the moral degradation
of the prodigal son, represents him as having
" wasted his substance in riotous living." And the
faithless servant at his coming was one who "ate
and drank with the drunken." Paul said, "Let us
walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and
drunkenness, etc. But put on ye the Lord Jesus
Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to ful-
fill the lusts thereof." Rom. xii. 12-14 And
Peter ; " The time past of our life may suffice us
to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we
walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revel-
ings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries."
i Peter iv. 3. Let these testimonies from the
Scriptures suffice.

3. Conversational Impurity. This includes all
manner of obscene and filthy language, unchaste
suggestions, libidinous inuendo, or otfyer forms of
dissolute speech, whereby lewd and sensual prac-
tices are incited and encouraged. " O generation
of vipers," cried the Master, "how can ye, being
evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh." "For every idle
word that men shall spea'c, they shall give account
at the day of judgement. For by thy words thou
shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned/ 1 Matt. xii. 34, 36. 37. Paul said,
" Let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good for the use of
edifying, that it may minister good to the hearers."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 213

" Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting."
" And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness, but rather reprove them. 11 Eph. iv.
29; v, 4, II. And James: "If any man offend not
in word, the same is a perfect man, able also to
bridle the whole body.' 1 " The tongue is a fire, a
world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our mem-
bers that it defileth the whole body and setteth on
fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of
hell." " Out of the same mouth proceedeth bless-
ing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be." James iii. 2, 6, 10. These extracts
will suffice under this head.

4. Passional Impurity. This includes all indul-
gences of excessive passion, inordinate affection,
and highly excited, irrational feeling. It may con-
sist in cherishing desires and lusts which ..are evil
in themselves, or affections and emotions essen-
tially good but unduly exercised and out of divine
order as to time, place, or degree. Primitive Chris-
tianity takes cognizance of sins not only outwardly
committed, but, in their inception or inward begin-
ning, as germs of wickedness in the heart. An
unhallowed picture of wrong appears before the
imagination ; gazing upon it in thought, especially
upon its attractive features, a desire to commit it is
awakened, which, being fondled and nourished, wins
the approval of the will, and that in turn determines
the course of sinful action to be pursued in the
case. The sin is committed in desire and purpose
before it becomes an accomplished fact an overt
act amenable to open rebuke and condemnation.

214 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Has not this been the mode of procedure with all
of us in our conscious wrongful deeds ?

But a great many vices never ultimate in out-
ward acts, for want of opportunity or because
repressed by circumstances. Yet, if they have an
abiding place in cherished desire, and are hospita-
bly entertained by the thought and will, they are
no less vices than if allowed to assume external
form. They are as real ; I do not say as heinous
or injurious. And we, therefore, should be thank-
ful when lack of opportunity or repressive circum-
stances prevent us from committing them in actual
word or deed. But let us not deem ourselves inno-
cent and free from condemnation at the bar of
righteous judgment in such cases; for we are verily
guilty in so far as we have voluntarily cherished
the desire, the thought, the will, to do the evil
thing, though such thought, desire, or will was
never actualized. Nor must we deem ourselves
cured of the evil, free from blame, and out of dan-
ger from it, until we have deeply repented of it, and
thoroughly overcome it. What we cannot inno-
cently consummate in external action, we cannot
innocently contemplate, purpose, or desicf. We
must silence and be wholly rid of the thir^ within
before we can be exempt from condemnation at the
judgment seat of Christ. This is the plain teach-
ing of the Gospel, as my texts indicate, and it is
philosophically sound doctrine.

Let us consider then that it is a most laudable am-
bition and a great attainment to be pure in heart
in affection, in imagination, in will, and in the exer-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 215

cise of every emotion resident within us. And let
us not forget that, to be blameless and undefiled in
word and deed, we must strive especially to be so
within ; that vice, crime, sin must be nipped in the
intentions and inclinations that govern us ; that we
must commence the work of ridding ourselves of
evil and its consequences at the very beginning in
our own breasts if we would succeed in accomplish-
ing the end in view. We may not wholly prevent
thoughts of evil coming to us, or wrong desires
springing up within, but we can refuse to give
them hospitable welcome and to harbor them as
acceptable guests, and thus nourish them till they
gain supremacy over us. Taken early and firmly
in hand, they can be held in check and sooner or
later completely overcome, enabling us to realize the
full meaning of the beatitude : " Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God.'*

5. Spiritual Impurity. This is the most subtle
and dangerous of the foes to man's highest well-
being of which this discourse treats. It relates to
and includes the most interior and intangible prin-
ciples and passions of the soul perverted and
turned Jrom their proper objects, thus working
most serious mischief and misery. "A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit." Matt. vii. 18. "Unto
them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing
pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defiled."
Titus i. 15. The other kinds of impurity named
are deplorable enough, but spiritual impurity most
so of all. And for the reason that it lies back of

216 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and beneath the others in the remote recesses of
the nature of man, and is constantly sending forth
a subtle, debasing influence, almost imperceptible
but potent for harm to the character and life. We
all have some deep ruling loves, motives, or prin-
ciples lying back of all sensation, almost back of
our consciousness. If these be good and pure we
can be reformed of many wrong habits or practices
with tolerable facility, and our growth in grace will
be correspondingly easy and rapid ; but if they are
corrupt and vile all moral and spiritual vitality is
in jeopardy; there is necessarily in us an essential
lack of moral principle, stamina, and integrity, as
there is of spiritual healthfulness and vigor. Let
me illustrate what I mean. Here is a man intel-
lectually capable, brilliant perhaps, but with a poor
or perverted conscience. His predominating motives
and impulses in the last analysis are animal and
selfish, yet he wears an appearance of respectabil-
ity; is possibly a successful, even a religious hypo-
crite. He is governed by such considerations as
are formulated iii the following apothegms : There
is no such thing as unconditioned right and wrong ;
as absolute personal responsibility ; and no higher
law than prudential expediency. Prevailing custom,
public opinion, the civil statute-book, embody
the highest rules of human conduct. The appe-
tites, passions, and propensities of human nature
must be allowed large liberty; must be gratified
more or less at pleasure, regardless of what are
called moral laws. Whatever can be done secretly
or openly for self-gratification is allowable, and the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 217

business of no one but the person or persons
involved. We are necessitated to act as we do
and cannot act otherwise. What we have the power
to do, we have the right to do ; " might makes right."
"The end sanctifies the means." Success is the
test of truth and duty, and must be honored accord-
ingly. All mankind are at heart selfish, and no
one person is better than another. He is the
wisest man who looks out best for himself, in this
woild. What one thinks, purposes, does, by him-
self, cannot be sinful, so long as he does not
express or act it to another's harm. What are
called crimes or sins are sometimes necessary, and
therefore, in such cases, justifiable. In fact there
is no such thing as absolute truth, or intrinsic,
unconditioned morality.

Now all these and kindred opinions, notions,
tenets, or ideas are seldom entertained by any one
person. But suppose they were substantially held
by the man in question, and were by him allowed
to mold and actuate his character and life. Do
you not see that there would be* in him a fatal
lack of moral principle, steadfastness, and honor, as
there would of true spiritual vitality and healthful-
ness? If by heredity, education, or surrounding
circumstances he chanced to be a decent fellow,
what could be done with him or for him but to let
him go his own way, and work out his destiny on
his own lines, only to find himself in fatal error at
the last. And if he by falling into evil courses
should need radical reformation, what moral appeals
could avail anything which did not reach and reverse

218 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

his controlling ideas, motives, and principles which
did not renovate him in the inmost recesses of his
soul ?

I conclude this discourse by saying that Primitive
Christianity deprecates and prohibits the different
kinds of corruption enumerated, and enjoins its dis-
ciples to strive after Christlike purity in all things.
Its morality in this matter is to me not only
supremely rational and attractive, but pre-eminently
calculated to promote order, virtue, spirituality, and
happiness among men. Wherefore let us heed the
apostolic exhortation, "Be thou an example of the
believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in
spirit, in faith, in purity/' i Tim. iv. 12. "For
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath
appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. Jesus
Christ having given himself for us, that he might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself
a peculiar people zealous of good works." Titus
ii. 11-14.

DISCOURSE XVI.

ON THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
CONCERNING OATH-TAKING.

; Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old
time; Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform
unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you 7 Swear not
at all.' Matt, v 33, 34.

* But above all things, my brethren, swear not ; neither by
heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath ; but
let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into
condemnation." James v. 12.

These passages inculcate a special duty of primi-
tive Christian morality abstinence from oath-
taking, in all its manifold forms. Christ seems not
to have originated this virtue. It was taught and
practiced by the Essenes, one of the several Jewish
sects ; and perhaps by some other moralists of the
olden time, though I am not certain on this point.
But no matter. Christ made it a part of his moral
code by adoption and unqualified sanction, and it
becomes his disciples to pay it respectful obedience.
In discussing the reasonableness and wisdom of
this prohibition, let us inquire, what is an oath ?
What is its alleged use? How did it originate?'
Did Christ prohibit all oath-taking among his dis-
ciples ? And if so, why ?

520 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I. What is an oath ? In answering this ques-
tion we must carefully distinguish between the
essential characteristic of an oath and, the several
concomitants necessarily involved or implied in it;
for these may exist without any oath, but no oath
without them. There can be no oath without a
person or persons to take it ; without some other
officially authorized person or persons to recognize
it ; without an occasion for the administration of it ;
without some solemn, obligatory declaration or
promise being made; without some implied doubt
of the general truthfulness or veracity of the party
or parties taking the oath ; without some real or
supposed judicial and retributive power appealed or
referred to in the form of adjuration used ; nor
without some fearful calamity, curse, or punishment
invoked or imprecated as a penalty for violating
the given promise or declaration. This last speci-
fication alone embodies the essentially distinctive
characteristic of an oath. The other named requi-
sites or concomitants of an oath may exist, but
without the last there is only a simple assertion
-or pledge of obligation, not an oath. That, in fact,
constitutes the oath.

The essential oath then consists in an imprecation
from some retributive power of a fearful calamity,
curse, or punishment, to be inflicted on the person or
persons making a specified declaration or promise, if
such declaration or promise prove false or contrary
to the truth. The retributive power invoked in any
case may be God, the gods, nature, angels, spirits,
or men in authority, and the penalty, curse, or

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 221

calamity impending, must be deemed fearful enough
to overcome 'all temptations or inducements to pre-
varication or falsehood. The form of imprecation
employed in the customary judicial oath is, "So
help me God "; which, as interpreted by the highest
legal tribunals, means, " May God withdraw all favor
from me and consign me to the doom of an utter
reprobate, if I testify or promise falsely in the
matter under consideration " ; in other words " I
stake all my hopes of divine mercy, grace, and
salvation upon my truthfulness in the present case. 1 '
Multitudes of people are ignorant of the real signi-
ficance of the invocation, " So help me God "; sup-
posing it to mean simply " May God help me to be
truthful in what I say," which would seem to be
correct from a superficial thought of the subject,
and by simply regarding the form of words employed.
But any intelligent jurist will inform them of their
error will tell them that the innocent-looking
phrase is a most fearful imprecation of divine ven-
geance the calling on God for utter and ever-
lasting condemnation, if "the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth" be not spoken.
Such is the meaning given to the phrase in question
by the united jurisprudence of Christendom, and the-
eminent moral philosopher, Dr. Francis Wayland, for-
merly of Brown University, says that its purpose is
"to imprecate upon ourselves the absence of the
favor of God, and, of course, all possible misery
forever." Nevertheless, the prescribed oath in any-
given case is so much a matter of form, and is
administered both by the courts and by the ordi-

222 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

nary magistrate in such an off-hand, frivolous man-
ner, that few who take it stop to consider whether
or not it is anything more than a legal technicality,
to be observed because prescribed in the statute,
but to be gone through with as speedily and indif-
ferently as possible. It ought not to be so, but so
it is in practical life.

Oaths are generally classed as judicial, extra-
judicial, and profane. Those prescribed by civil
governments are called judicial. Those adminis-
tered under the authority of voluntary associations,
secret societies, and by individuals in private life,
are termed extra-judicial. While common oaths,
those used more or less thoughtlessly and recklessly
in the ordinary intercourse of life ; as heard in the
street, saloon, office, or elsewhere among the vulgar
and irreverent, are designated as profane. But all
kinds of oaths agree in the one distinctive charac-
teristic, implied or involved the imprecation of
some harm, curse, calamity, or vengeance upon the
person or persons to whom the oath applies or is
related. For this reason especially, as well as for
others to be enumerated, they are condemned and
prohibited by the pure morality of the Gospel of
Christ

How then is it, the question may be asked, with
what is termed the affirmation a substitute for
the oath often used by persons of conscientious
scruples regarding the matter. This first came into
vogue by enactment of the English Parliament under
William III. in 1796, as a concession to the rising
religious party termed Friends or Quakers, who

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 223

absolutely refused to take an oath for conscience'
sake, and who suffered many disabilities and wrongs
and much persecution on that account. They were
quite willing to acknowledge submission to the civil
government of their country, but nothing would
induce them to sweat allegiance to it or to take
any other form of oath. It was finally proposed
that they should make a simple affirmation, subject
to "the pains and penalties of perjury," in cases
where the oath was administered to other people.
To this proposition they gave their assent, and an
act of Parliament was passed accordingly. In our
country any one having a conscience against the
oath may make affirmation instead, the favor not
being restricted to Friends alone. Personally, I
always insist on this privilege. The affirmation is
not free from objections, but it is in no proper
sense an oath, and is far preferable to it. It impre-
cates no divine wrath or vengeance upon one guilty
of untruthfulness, though it acknowledges the right-
fulness of heavy legal penalties for that offence, and
of course, liability to suffer them if the offence be
committed. There is a kind of absurdity, however,
in formally requiring this acknowledgment as a sub-
stitute for the customary imprecation, inasmuch as
all governments claim and exercise the prerogative
of inflicting punishment in such cases, and Chris-
tians are bound by their religion to render them
peaceful submission in this as in other respects.
The time is coming, no doubt, when the govern-
ments of all civilized nations will be wise and
humane enough to lay aside all such lumbering

224 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

forms as oaths and affirmations, and simply hold their
subjects penally responsible for false declarations and
promises, according to the nature and aggravation
of the offence. But that era of reason and com-
mon sense is yet far away in the future. Meantime
the affirmation can be taken by those resolved to
be obedient to their confessed Master in this matter,
as a form essentially free from the abominations of
an oath.

2. What is the alleged use, object, or design of
an oath ? This requires but a brief answer ; viz. :
to secure truthfulness in cases of serious impor-
tance veracity in giving testimony or making
declaration, and fidelity in the fulfilment of prom-
ises, engagements, and obligations. From the earli-
est times and as incidental to a morally low order
of individual and social life, fear has been deemed
the most powerful motive which could be brought
to bear upon human nature for the purpose of
gaining desirable results, and especially the fear of
God, of supernatural beings, or of vengeance in some
form from the invisible world. Next to these objects
of fear, the calamities of physical nature, the visita-
tions of misfortune, and the inflictions of powerful
men rulers, magistrates, etc. invested with the
assumed right to destroy life, have been employed
to awaken the same sentiment in the human breast.
The oath is based on such sentiment on super-
stitions and semi-barbarous fears. It is the product
of superstition and barbarism. Where these have
been outgrown its usefulness ceases ; it is either
trifled with or conformed to from mere custom, or

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 225

abhorred as pernicious. It was for long ages
assumed, and perhaps still is by many people, that
maledictions and punishments, solemnly invoked in
confirmation of one's truthfulness, not only impend
over the guilty but are quite likely to be inflicted,
sooner or later. Therefore the more fearful the
evil imprecated, the stronger the assurance of
the imprecator's sincerity and trustworthiness. The
more fearful the oath, the more reliable the witness ;
the harder the swearing, the more credible the testi-
mony. Consequently no one was to be trusted
where anything of importance was at stake with-
out an oath. It is no wonder under these circum-
stances that oaths were multiplied indefinitely, till
used in every pettifogging law-suit and to qualify
the lowest public functionaries. No wonder that so
many generations of mongrel Christians have believed
that for a man to pledge all his hopes of God's
favor in time and eternity and to imprecate on
himself everlasting damnation if guilty, was the
most perfect guaranty of his honesty and truthful-
ness ! Alas for human folly and superstition!

3. The origin of oaths. They antedate all history
and all known development of civilization, even the
rudest. They were invented by none of the famous
legislators whose names have come down from
remote antiquity ; all of whom found them in use
among men and merely accepted them as indis-
pensable, with such modifications as they deemed
it wise to make. We can trace them to prehistoric
times and may with probability conjecture that they
are coeval with the oldest superstitions of our race.

226 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

As soon as men began to believe in terrible, avenging,
supernatural powers, they might naturally invent the
oath as a warrant for truthfulness. But precisely
how this was we have no certain knowledge, but
must be content to presume that the oath originated
as indicated, in the twilight of human history,
whence it gradually came into the usage of suc-
ceeding generations and of all nations.

4. Why did Christ prohibit the use of the oath
among his disciples ? No reasons are given but we
can deduce them with tolerably certainty from the
fundamental principles of his Gospel. In the nature
of things, oaths are repugnant to the genius of
Christianity, which proclaims God a Father, man a
brother, and the supremacy of a love that blesses
and curses not. Under such conceptions oath-tak-
ing must be regarded as objectionable and wrong:

1 i ) Because it is a slavish superstition, based
on irrational fear and imaginary divine cruelty.

( 2 ) Because it is presumptuous in man to prescribe
vengeful punishment for his own sins or those of
his fellow-men. He does not know the nature or
amount of punishment requisite in any given case. It
is, therefore, reprehensibly rash and arrogant for him
to prejudge and solicit retribution above all divine
vengeance for offences against the moral law.
Yet oath-taking involves such unwarrantable assump-
tion of judicial wisdom a prerogative belonging to
God alone. ( 3 ) Because it is irreverent and impi-
ous towards God to call on Him to visit with out-
pourings of indignation and wrath any wrong-doers
or violators of His holy law ; implying thereby that

AXD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 227

he will not judge righteously and execute punish-
ment impartially in the administration of His divine
government. The oath presupposes that He can
and will be advised and directed in certain contin-
gencies by the imploration of human ignorance,
folly, and superstition. The absurdity of such pro-
ceeding is as glaring as it is impious. ( 4 ) Because
oath-taking makes truthfulness on special occasions
and upon particular matters all-important, but truth-
fulness as a primary and universal virtue of very
little account. When under oath men must be
truthful because the most solemn and awful impre-
cations are hanging over them. But when not
under oath they may lie and deceive with compar-
ative impunity ; at least with little apprehension
of divine condemnation, as none has been formally
invoked. This is virtually setting at naught the
sacred obligation to speak the truth at all times,
and playing fast and loose with moral principle.
It is adopting a slip-shod morality, hostile to the
genius of the religion of Christ. Under that reli-
gion, every "yea" and "nay" must be as sacredly
kept as an oath. ( 5 ) Because oath-taking, although
it may insure greater veracity and credibility among
the ignorant and unprincipled, tends to corrupt the
public conscience and to vitiate the sense of obli-
gation always to speak the truth among the masses
of mankind. If men are to put under oath in
order to be believed, who is likely to be truthful
otherwise ? Or whose word is to be trusted if he
who utters it be not sworn? Oath-taking always
did?and always will educate men to be unscrupu-

228 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

lous in common life, and weaken confidence in the
ordinary utterances and statements of human inter-
course and acquaintanceship. Whereas, according
to the teaching and spirit of Christ, one's word
should forever be as reliable as his oath or bond.

( 6 ) The oath, while often a sham and an offence to
the honest and upright, becomes "sheep's clothing"
or a " scape-goat " to the unscrupulous and hypo-
critical a mere spider's web. How many timid,
inexperienced witnesses have been disconcerted,
confused, and broken down by a skilful manipula-
tion of its terrors ! How many brazen charlatans
have imposed their falsehoods upon a court under
its sanction, defeated justice, and defrauded the
innocent of their rightful dues ! How many honest,
conscientious people have lost what justly belonged
to them because they would not swear at all or
swear falsely! How many self-seeking, unprinci-
pled men have been sworn into office the duties of
which they never intended to perform! The more
unscrupulous a man is, the more ready is he to
swear to anything for his own gain. Those familiar
with judicial office-holding, and revenue collecting
affairs will tell you how little reliance can be placed
upon oaths. Experienced men of sound judgment
seeking the ends of justice in any case rely far
more upon the substantial and known credibility of
a witness or promiser than upon his formal oath.

(7) Because oath-taking, as maintained by law,
leads to profane swearing and the manifold abuses
and improprieties connected therewith. If men
may invoke God's wrath and curse in stately form

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 229

on solemn occasions, why not in everyday life and
in the common intercourse of man with man? So
it seems to have been with the Jews in Christ's
time. Their profanities were numerous. They
swore by heaven, by the earth, by the temple, by
the altar, and some by their own heads. More-
over, Rabbinical casuistry could create nice distinc-
tions and subtle evasions whereby the crafty could
pretend to make oath to anything while being in
fact bound to nothing. That oath-taking in one
form or another was a prevailing habit in the early
Christian days may be inferred from the fact that
Peter, though called to be an apostle, in his confu-
sion and agitation caused by the repeated charge
of companionship with the accused Jesus, "denied
it with an oath " and " began to curse and to swear,
saying, 'I know not the man. 1 " For these seven
and kindred reasons which I need not pause to
specify, it is obvious that such a Christ and such a
Christianity as we have portrayed in the New
Testament, must, in the very nature of things,
morally considered, be utterly opposed to oath-
taking, and in principle and spirit, as well as in
verbal form, must have put it under perpetual and
unqualified prohibition.

5. But did Jesus intend to forbid all oath-taking
in his teaching upon the subject ? Without doubt.
His language is inclusive and sweeping, making no
exceptions and admitting of none. Take note of it.
"Swear not at all\ neither by heaven, for it is
God's throne ; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool ;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great

230 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

king ; neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because
thou canst not make one hair white or black." And
James, reiterating the injunction, adds; "Neither by
any other oath," showing how universal and abso-
lute were the Saviour's words, as he, one of his
chosen teachers, understood them. Yet some have
childishly pleaded that Christ could not have in-
cluded sacred and judicial oaths, such as Moses
sanctioned and civil governments prescribe, but
only false, piofane swearing. The groundlessness
of their plea is made apparent by noticing his
mode of introducing the subject. "Ye have heard
that it hath been said by them of olden time, Thou
shalt not forswear thyself but shalt perform unto
the Lord thine oaths ; but I say unto you, Swear
hot at all." He refers to sacred and judicial oath-
taking as approved and practiced by Moses and
the ancient law-givers only to condemn and utterly
prohibit it, teaching a higher morality, that of not
swearing at all. They forbade false-swearing and
common profanity; he everything of the nature of
an oath. He was not simply repeating and empha-
sizing their requirement, but proclaiming a more
exalted and comprehensive one, as his language
plainly proves; to wit: abstinence from oath-taking
of every kind and name. What confuses many
people is the difficulty of applying this prohibition
to the affairs of civil government as now consti-
tuted. The difficulty will disappear as civil govern-
ments become Christianized rise to the moral
plane of the Sermon on the Mount. On a lower
plane their action in this as in other respects will

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 231

be controlled by maxims, customs, and principles
more or less antagonistic, or at least inferior to those
derived from the New Testament. But professed
followers of Jesus those taking him for their
leader are under sacred obligation to observe and
obey in consistent loyalty the precept, " Swear not
at all." Civil society and organized governments
will attain to the same high standard at some future
date and stage of progress.

Another groundless plea in opposition to this
sweeping interpretation and application of the
Saviour's teaching upon 'ciJj matter is that he
himself took a judicial oath when brought before
Caiaphas the high priest and adjured by that func-
tionary to tell whether or not "he was the Christ,
the son of God." To that adjuration he replied,
"Thou hast said," the equivalent of an affirmative
answer. Now granting that the question forced
upon Jesus was in the form of an oath, the answer
he gave in no wise implicated him. He was not
in the least degree responsible for what Caiaphas
said. He had put a question in his own way. He
imposed no oath upon the accused. He exacted
from him no appeal to God, no imprecations of
divine wrath in any contingency. He asked his
question in the most imperative manner known to
him. Jesus answered in a calm, dignified spirit,
as became him, virtually declaring the truth and
representing himself to the high priest and his
accusers in his true light, without evasion, prevari-
cation, or fear, though he knew that death awaited
his reply. His action and bearing were in keeping

232 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

with his whole sublime character, and furnish not
the slightest warrant for assuming that there was
in his mind any exception to his general sweeping
prohibition of oath-taking.

Such then is the morality of Primitive Christianity
in relation to the subject discussed in the present
discourse. The doctrine inculcated is to my mind
pure, elevated, and surpassingly admirable, and I
am amazed at the fact in religious history that,
since the days of Constantine in the fourth century,
only little groups of professed Christians scattered
here and there through many lands have been true
to it. Nevertheless, I feel sure that the number of
learned and exemplary men and women, as well as
of those less learned though equally exemplary,
who have acknowledged and reverenced this Gospel
requirement, has been slowly increasing for the last
three hundred years and must go on increasing
until the odious, unchristian practice shall be num-
bered with manifold other products of ignorance,
superstition, and barbarism which have no longer a
place among the established habits, customs, and
institutions of civilized man. Meanwhile let those
who have risen to a just conception of the primi-
tive Christian doctrine touching the matter in
review and are resolved to follow the Master whither-
soever he may lead them, as sincere disciples, be
faithful to their light with an unwavering assurance
that "truth is mighty and will prevail."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 233

Shall we who bear the Christian name

And vows of love and fealty make,
Without disquietude or shame

Presume an oath to give or take ?

Behold m every Christian land,

Barbaric customs still abound ;
Still set at naught is Christ's command,

With odious oaths the airs resound

May we no baneful flood augment,

Nor help to swell corruption's tide ;
But, with a loyalty intent,

Be faithful to our heavenly guide

DISCOURSE XVII.

ON THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
CONCERNING- PROPERTY.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous-
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt.
vi. 33.

The design of this discourse is to present a clear
and truthful exposition of the primitive Christian
morality in respect to property its acquisition, use,
and disposal, in the rightful ordering of human life
upon the earth. On this point the teachings of
Christ and his apostles have been very imperfectly
understood. The doctrine embodied in them is
peculiar and peculiarly excellent, as I propose to
show. As with other themes discussed by me, so
with this ; we will begin at the foundation.

First, then, what is property? We all have a
general idea of what it is, but let us be definite and
accurate in replying to this question. The word
property has various meanings. In the present
investigation, however, it is to be used exclusively
in its pecuniary or monetary sense, as representing
whatever is subject to ownership as possessing an
appreciable, transferable, marketable value. In this
sense anything and everything having monetary
worth and capable of being exchanged for an

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 235

assumed equivalent anything and everything that
can be bought, sold, loaned, given, taken, and made
serviceable to the necessity, comfort, or enjoyment
of mankind, is property. It may belong to any one
of the great kingdoms of material nature; it may
belong to one person exclusively, or jointly to two
or more persons, or it may be held in common for
the use and benefit of any considerable number of
persons, however associated. I need not be more
specific ; the definition given being sufficiently
explicit and comprehensive for the purpose now
in view.

In what does the intrinsic and absolute value of
property consist ? Obviously in its ability to pro-
duce, procure, or furnish some substantial good ;
some wholesome, innocent satisfaction and pleasure
to the body, mind, or heart of man. One might
own all the world but if he could derive no
real benefit from it and get no happiness out of it,
it would be of no worth to him ; perhaps an intoler-
able burden. Or, if he so misused or abused it
as to render it 'a bane rather than a blessing to
himself and others, its possession would be worse
than worthless a positive nuisance or curse.

And now having stated what property is and in
what its absolute value consists, we will inquire how
Christ regarded its ownership and use, and what
directions he gave or the principles of his religion
suggest and require in respect to its accumulation
and distribution. Did he ignore the subject of
property as something with which he and his
religion had nothing to do, leaving his disciples to

236 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

act in reference to it as seemed to them best ?
Certainly not; for his precepts concerning it were
neither few nor indefinite. Did he assume that
there was no such thing as property, as some
reformers have taught, and no rights of ownership,
individual or combined? By no means; for he told
the young man coming to him for instruction con-
cerning the eternal life what to do with his great
possessions. Did he denounce all property as evil
or unnecessary? No; for he said "Your heavenly
Father knoweth ye have need of these things "
food, raiment, and such-like articles of common use
belonging to the category of property. He, without
doubt, recognized the fact of property and the right
of holding it, but put it, in his plan of human life,
under strict supervision and regulation. He used
intensive forms of speech concerning this, as con-
cerning other subjects, which are to be interpreted
and applied as reason and common sense dictate and
in the light of his general teaching and example.
The passage in King James' version of the New
Testament, "Take no thought for- your life," etc.,
by a more rational, if not a more literal render-
ing, reads, "Be not over-anxious for your life/'
etc. The precept condemns distrustful, feverish
solicitude and fear, not calm, rational forethought
and wise provision for coming needs. The young
man referred to, inquiring the way of the eternal life,
was told that if he would be perfect he must sell
what he had and give to the poor. But this was
only a special case and the requirement was the
touch-stone of the young man's selfishness for

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 23T

this was his prevailing sin and was never designed
to be the universal rule for those seeking to follow
Christ in all sincerity and faithfulness. It is no-
where else enjoined in all the Scripture record,
though a generous, large-hearted liberality and relief
of the poor and needy are enjoined repeatedly, and
made of essential importance. That Jesus did not
intend to be understood as teaching the universal
duty of using one's entire possessions for the good
and happiness of mankind, and was not so under-
stood by his associates, is plainly shown by the fact
that several of those associates Peter, Matthew,
and John especially had homes of their own and
without doubt the usual appurtenances of domestic
life, with possibly other property; deeming them-
selves in no wise untrue to their Lord on that
account and receiving no rebuke from him therefor.
No. The intensive forms of speech often used by
Jesus and other Scripture personages are not to be-
strained to their utmost and taken in their baldest,
most literal sense, but are to be construed and
understood, I repeat, by the reason and common
sense of thoughtful men and women, in harmony
with the essential spirit and principles of the Gospel
as contained in the general teachings and exempli-
fied in the life of the, Founder of the Christian faith.
Otherwise we make nonsense of some of the sub-
limest doctrines of Christianity and fall into confusion,
and serious error concerning what is most vital to-
our holy religion and to the well-being and happiness,
of mankind. And in the matter before us, let us.
remember that we can give all we have, including-

288 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ourselves, for the good of humanity, in ways thai
shall enlighten, reform, elevate, and save them, with
out impoverishing ourselves and depriving ourselves
of the means of further helpfulness in the world.

That Christ and his apostles never questioned the
rightfulness of owning, managing, and disposing of
property, is further attested by the fact that all their
precepts regarding the use oi worldly possessions
pre-suppose such rightfulness. Moreover, their
injunctions against covetousness and mammon-wor-
ship, and their exhortations to charity and liberal
giving, necessarily imply the same thing. In that
palmy day of brotherly love when the disciples " had
all things in common," the treasury was supplied by
individuals selling what they pleased of their belong-
ings and contributing the whole or part of the
proceeds as they deemed best. Whatever was so
collected was not given, nor was it asked, on the
ground that those in possession of it had no right
to it, or that it was a sin to retain it. Ananias and
Sapphira were not condemned for keeping back a
part of their property, but for lying about it. Peter
plainly said to them, " While it remained, was it not
thine own, and after it was sold, was it not in thine
own power ? "

Again : Did Christ and his apostles ever prescribe
how and by whom property should be owned and
managed; whether by individuals, by joint tenants,
or by tenants in common ? Never ; but wisely left
the matter to the judgment and choice of each and
every individual owner of property to the end of
time, as a question of prudential expediency, not

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 239

of absolute moral principle. For some people it
may be best for themselves and for humanity to be
individual proprietors; for others, joint partners;
for others, co-operative share-holders; and for still
others, proprietors in common or communistic own-
ers. I am a decided Associationist, not because of
any arbitrary moral obligation or necessity impelling
thereto, not because there is any natural or moral
wrong in individual ownership, but on grounds of
wise expediency for those prepared for it, as a
means of elevating humanity and bringing in the
kingdom of heaven.

What then is the primitive Christian morality in
its relation to property ? As taught by Christ it is

1. That all property, being supplied to mankind
originally by divine Providence, should be subject to
the divine law the supreme moral law of justice,
charity, and brotherhood.

2. That property must never be worshiped,
idolized, or allowed to stand first in human esteem
as preferable to God, man, or duty. It must not
be desired, acquired, used, or disposed of, contrary
to the divine moral law.

3. That property must not be deemed precious
per se, or valued merely for its own sake, but solely
-for the good uses to which it may be devoted for
what it may be the means of doing to satisfy the
necessities and promote the improvement, comfort,
and happiness of the human race.

4. That all property must be deemed consecrated
to innocent, lawful, and beneficent purposes, accord-
ing to the highest light of those in possession of

240 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

it, and used for such purposes judiciously and
ungrudgingly.

5. That the mere possession of property, how-
ever innocently acquired, confers no right to expend
or appropriate it contrary to the perfect law of
justice and love; that is, for any improper, wrong,
or evil purpose.

6. That great riches are morally dangerous to-
those possessing them and oppressive to the poorer
classes ; and that the voluntary avoidance of exces-
sive wealth by donation, in the spirit of self-sacrifice
for the advancement of any holy cause, the doing of
any philanthropic work, or the prosecution of any
enterprise which a sense of duty suggests, is pre-
eminently advisable and praiseworthy.

These propositions seem to me plainly deducible
from the following and other testimonies of New
Testament Scriptures, viz. : " No man can serve
two masters; for either he will hate the one and
love the other or he will hold to the one and despise
the other, Ye cannot serve God and mammon. "
" Therefore be not over-anxious saying, What shall
we eat or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek ; for your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. But seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you."
Matt. vi. 24, 31-33. "Take heed and beware of
covetousness ; for a man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things that he possesseth." " Sell
that ye have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags

AND ITS COBRUPTIONS. 241

which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that
faileth not ; where no thief approacheth nor moth
corrupteth. For where your treasure is there will
your heart be also." Luke xii. 15, 33, 34. See
also in the same chapter, the parable of the rich
man who pulled down his barns and builded greater,
and who then said to his soul, " Soul, thou hast much
goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease ; eat,
drink and be merry. But God said unto him, Fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then
whose shall these things be which thou hast pro-
vided ? So is he that layeth up treasure for him-
self and is not rich towards God." Verses 16-21.
" Charge them that are rich in this world that they
be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches
but in the living God, who giveth us all richly to
enjoy ; that they do good, that they be rich in good
works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate ;
laying up in store for themselves a good founda-
tion against the time to come, that they may lay
hold on eternal life." "For we brought nothing
into this world and it is certain we can carry
nothing out. And having food and raiment let us
therewith be content. But they that will be rich
fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in
destruction and perdition. For the love of money
is the root of all evil, which, while some coveted
after, they have erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows." i Tim. vi.
17-19, 7-10. "Let your conversation be without
covetouaness, and be content with such things as

242 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ye have ; for he hath said, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The
Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man
shall do unto me." Heb. xiii. 5, 6. "Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is
more blessed to give than to receive." Acts xx.
35. "Who though he was rich, yet for your sakes
became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be made rich." 2 Cor. viii. 9. " Whoso hath
this world's good and seeth his brother have need
and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,
how dwelleth the love of God in him ? Let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and
in truth/' i John iii. 17, 18. These quotations
will suffice.

If there can be any higher, holier, or more
rational morality relative to property than this, I
know not where to look for it. And I am sure
that the blessed experiences of the few in all ages
of our era who have practiced it, as well as the
bitter experiences of the many who have contemned
it, must rise up to confess and attest its excellence.
Who then are disposed to make it their own by
adoption and exemplification ? To enlighten and
aid all such let me still further expound the prin-
ciples involved by specifying the just, necessary,
and Christian uses to which property may be put,
in conformity with the spirit of what has been said.

i. To supply the natural need of wholesome food
or nutriment just what in kind, quality, variety,
and quantity, is really healthful and promotive of
the well-being of the physical body.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 243

2. To supply the natural need of clothing or
raiment, of just the kind, quality, and amount requi-
site to health, comfort, and modest comeliness
nothing less and nothing more.

3. To supply the natural need of a healthful,
comfortable, pleasant home housing, lodging, with
accompanying appliances and appurtenances.

4. To supply necessary, wholesome, productive
employment for one's self and dependents ; whereby
suitable business may be carried on or work fur-
nished according to capacity and opportunity. This,
all who live by honest industry must have; either
by their own providing or at the hands of employ-
ers. Enough of the right kind of employment
should be available but not so much as to impose
slavish burdens upon any, whether or not disposed
to bear them.

5. To supply all the really necessary healthful
and proper pecuniary means of supporting, rearing,
educating, and satisfying the essential wants of a
family. A reasonable sufficiency without extrava-
gance or excess in any particular.

6. To supply all real need of rest, recreation, and
amusement; also maintenance in case of debility,
infirmity, or advancing age.

7. To meet the necessary expenses of sickness
to which all are liable, general care, medical attend-
ance and prescriptions, special nursing, etc.

8. To provide for one's self and dependents, if
there be such, decently liberal facilities for intellect-
ual, moral, and religious culture, and for keeping

244 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

informed upon current events and topics of general
interest as time goes on.

9. To maintain a reasonably generous hospitality
towards friends and acquaintances, strangers and
others brought incidentally into contact with us,
according to position in life and the promptings of
kindly interest and good will.

10. To meet necessary traveling expenses and
other incidental demands that may be justly made
in the ordinary course of human events.

11. To pay honorably all just public taxes and all
rightful claims for the preservation of social order
and the general well-being of the community, as
becomes good citizenship in the neighborhood or
town.

12. To be able to contribute liberally to worthy
charities and philanthropies, to help the poor and
needy making their appeal for aid, and to support
equitably and cheerfully, in co-operation with others,
the institutions of education, benevolence, and reli-
gion in general society.

Thus have I named twelve just, necessary, and
commendable uses to which property may be put in
fealty to the requirements of Primitive Christianity.
They are all sanctioned if not prescnptively enjoined
by the Founder and Head of our holy religion, and
are in happy accord with the principles and spirit of
the New Testament.

For the general guiding of conscientious people in
regard to personal expenditure, etc., and to prevent
serious misjudgment and capricious abuse, while

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 245

allowing considerable latitude for the exercise of
individual opinion, some such general rule as the
following may be suggested as worthy of observance,
viz. : Never to appropriate to one's self, family
dependents, or personal favorites, for exclusive use
or consumption, more property in the aggregate than
would be each individual's average equitable share if
all mankind were ordering their lives by the teaching
and example of the Man of Nazereth and according
to the supreme law of love to God and man. This I
regard as the proper basis on which to make an esti-
mate of the amount of one's rightful possessions ;
all accumulations exceeding the figures thus ascer-
tained, honestly and honorably acquired, being held
as a trust, to be judiciously and scrupulously devoted
to benevolent and humanitary uses and to the build-
ing up of the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and
joy on the earth. One might, in the spirit of self-
sacrifice and at his own discretion, appropriate any
given amount less than the average determined as
stated to his own personal advantage and for the
supply of his own and dependents' necessities, but
should carefully avoid exceeding it. And according
to one's ability thus obtained of doing good in the
world would be the satisfaction and happiness real-
ized in the fulfilment of the Saviour's declaration,
" It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Some no doubt will question my positions and
'conclusion and say, as you interpret Christian
morality in its application to property, we must
never make money or a'cquire means of any kind
contrary to the commandments : " Love thy neigh-

246 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

bor as thyself"; " Do unto others as you would have
others do unto you." Exactly so. But that would
keep us in perpetual indigence, or, at least, in
exceedingly straitened circumstances, financially con-
sidered. Are you quite sure of this? Are you
quite confident that the course I propose and submit
as enjoined by pure Christianity, would- make or
keep the general mass of people poor, even amid
the abounding selfishness of the world ? If so, I
can but feel that you have fallen into grave error.
It might prevent any one, or at least but few, from
becoming very rich, but it would not and could not
reduce the multitude to poverty or prevent those
making a beginning in life without pecuniary means
from gaining an ample competency, or in many cases
from rising to independent affluence and a ready
command of resources for all reasonably desirable
uses. This I sincerely believe, for the reason that
productive industry in any honorable calling, intelli-
gently pursued, accompanied by a due degree of
precaution and frugality, all of which are specific
Christian duties, will be blest of divine providence
and insure fair returns and ultimately abundant (not
super-abundant) accumulation. Misfortune or cal-
amity or other adverse circumstances might occa-
sionally prevent such results, but this would be in
exceptional cases, and would not disprove the gen-
eral rule. The natural and legitimate fruit of leading
a life of industry, simplicity, frugality, such as the
precepts of Christianity justify and approve, is an
ample sufficiency of worldly possessions for all right-
ful persona] and domestic uses, with a surplus

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 247

for liberal hospitality and openhanded though not
princely charity.

Thus have I expounded and illustrated what seems
to me to be the pure Christian doctrine in regard to
the acquisition, management, use and disposal of
worldly possessions, or of what is termed property.
And I appeal in closing to the understanding .and
conscience of my hearers (and readers) for a ver-
dict in its favor. Is it not pre-eminently just, wise,
beneficent worthy of acceptance and of practical
exemplification ? Is not the world suffering for the
reason that men are not ordering their lives in
accordance with it ; are not realizing it in some
good degree ? So I sincerely and devoutly think and
believe, and I must preach and teach accordingly.
Nay, more, I must strive to act in all respects con-
sistently with such preaching and teaching, and
exhort my fellow-men all over whom I have influ-
ence, to do the same. And may the divine Father
and his beloved Son through the Holy Spirit help
me and them to be faithful evermore.

DISCOURSE XVIII.

ON THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
CONCERNING- MENTAL CULTURE.

u Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right."
Luke xii. 57.

"Be not children in understanding; howbeit, in malice be
ye children, but in understanding be men.'* r Cor. xiv. 20

Some modern critics and reputed reformers depre-
ciate and discredit Christ and the early promulgators
of his religion on the ground that they ignored the
importance of the human understanding, and did
nothing to promote intellectual culture by means of
schools, colleges, or other institutions of learning ;
by philosophical inquiry, general literature, the
fine arts, etc. It is assumed by such that these
ancient worthies were either too ignorant or too
superstitious, or perhaps both, to take any interest
in things of that nature, their chief if not only care
and concern being to maintain and propagate a
certain type of religious belief, with its correspond-
ing piety and morality, which they claimed had been
revealed from heaven. Are these censors and de-
tractors of the Founder of Christianity and his
ministers just? And is their contention reasonable?
And ought their strictures to be taken seriously as
disclosures of the incompetency of those against

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 249

whom they are made for the work they professedly
undertook to do the work of morally and spirit-
ually renovating and uplifting humanity and bringing
in the kingdom of God. I think not. Let us can-
didly and thoughtfully consider the subject brought
to our attention by these inquiries. Upon it we
want " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
truth/' land us where it may.

I freely concede that the personages alluded to
established no seminaries or institutions of learning,
technically so called, and made no systematic pro-
vision for the promotion of science, art, philosophy,
or general literature. Such institutions under
different names and of more or less value existed
in those days in Judea, Egypt, Greece, Rome,
and other parts of the world. I concede also
that those first teachers of Christianity did not
prescribe it as a Christian duty to patronize and
support such existing institutions, nor to found
similar ones of their own devising. 'They regarded
some of the instruction commonly given in
those institutions and some of the accomplishments
commonly taught as mere " worldly wisdom,'* which
was " foolishness with God," puffing up and pervert-
ing the student. But I do not for a moment grant
that they were opposed to such institutions per se,
or to any kind of useful knowledge per se, or to
any kind of intellectual culture or accomplishment
in itself considered. Nor do I grant that those
men were so ignorant as to know nothing of the
institutions of learning then in operation, nor so
narrow-minded as never to consider their uses and

250 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

general salutary influence. Nor do I grant that they
ever prohibited, hindered, or discouraged Christians
from obtaining the advantages of such institutions
if available and unobjectionable ; much less from
founding and supporting new and better ones of
their own whenever opportunity and ability might
enable them so to do. And least of all do I allow
that they forbade, despised, or neglected the free
exercise of the understanding or what we call the rea-
soning faculties in man. On the contrary, I main-
tain that they made it an imperative duty a part
of their morality to cultivate by continued, honest
exercise the intellectual nature. That they did so
and that they regarded such culture a matter of
moral obligation, constitutes the special subject of
consideration in this discourse. But before adduc-
ing proof in support of this position, I propose to
justify Christ and his immediate ministers for their
omissions and commissions respecting this matter
of mental training and culture.

I. They established no educational institutions ;
this is admitted. And why ? Because it was simply
impossible for them to do so under those circum-
stances of agitation, privation, and persecution amid
which they were placed. Jesus himself was engaged
in public labors only about three and a half years,
going about doing good, preaching the Gospel of
the kingdom, with his life in his hand, as it were,
and of course had no time or strength for project-
ing and founding organized and well-equipped institu-
tions of any sort. His disciples after his crucifixion
became intensely interested and occupied in study

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 251

ing and propagating the great truths of their reli-
gion. For this they were continually beset and
harassed by bitter opposition, encountering men
by day and night seeking cause for having them
imprisoned and put to death, most of their leaders
actually coming to an early martyrdom. Who can
imagine that persons thus conditioned would or
could evince an active interest in the pursuit of
knowledge or in devising ways and means of pro-
moting its acquisition ?

2. These primitive laborers in the Christian field
did not enjoin it upon themselves and their fellow-
disciples to patronize and support schools, colleges,
etc., already founded or to establish and equip new
ones more closely conformed to any advanced ideas,
they might entertain on the subject of intellectual
culture. Well and wisely so ; and for three reasons.
( i ) Existing institutions were either closed against
them on account of their heretical faith, or were
under the control of intolerant opposers, or were
agencies for upholding doctrines and practices which
they could not conscientiously approve. ( 2 ) Times
and circumstances, as already stated, rendered it
impossible for them to found new ones. (3)
In the natural course of the things under the new
system of faith and life, such institutions on general
Christian principles, would arise when conditions and
circumstances favored, without special precepts or
commands. So it seems to me they acted wisely
and well in the matter.

3. They regarded much that was taught in the
schools of their day as useless and some of it perni-

252 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

-cious a mixture of scientific or other truth with
superstition, idolatry, and vain philosophy. Nothing
was truer than this as time and increased wisdom
have proved. There is useful knowledge, that which
is of value to the learner, and there is knowledge
which is without utility and utterly unprofitable ;
and there are foolish and demoralizing accomplish-
ments in the educational curriculum, as there are
refining and ennobling ones. Primitive Christianity
was justly opposed both to pernicious instruction
and to needless instruction, as it was to empty and
degrading manners and customs, though fashionable
and courtly. Moreover it did not deem the most
unexceptionable and commendatory scholastic attain-
ments essential to salvation; promotive of virtue,
piety and happiness, unless controlled by moral and
religious principles and the spirit of love to God and
man. Hence it was the chief, the leading purpose
of. its representatives to disseminate far and wide as
possible the great distinguishing principles and spirit
of their religion as of most vital importance, believ-
ing- and /feeling that .under their inspiration and
guidance, education, mental training, intellectual
attainments, would be duly provided for, and that
when- the proper time should .come and favoring
opportunity should arise, all neeclfuLmeans and appli-
ances for the development, training," and strengthen-
ing the powers of the minii .for the acquisition of
useful knowledge, would, be -supplied. 'They held to
and lived by the injunction "Seek ye first the king-
dom of J God and his righteousness and all these
shall be granted you."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 25

And who can say in good conscience and with
sound judgment they were not right, acting not only
from high and noble motives for the cause of pure
and undefiled religion and the good of humanity,
but under that inspiration of the Almighty which
giveth men understanding and in the line of that
wisdom which is "profitable to direct." I believe
they were. I have seen too many learned apes, liter-
ary epicures, plodding bookworms, scholastic pedants,,
and too many educated profligates and villains to
worship merely intellectual attainment. With high-
toned moral principle and sterling common sense the
more learning the better. But without the former
the latter is likely to be of little practical value or to
be put to a bad use to feed self-conceit and the
spirit of caste, or prey upon or make serfs and pack-
horses of the unlearned and more easily beguiled
masses of mankind. There is a broad distinction
existing between mere scholarship and true wisdom*
There may be much of the former, while the rational
faculties, the powers of the unde rstanding, are undis-
ciplined, feeble, inert. Hence there are many so-
called educated people who cannot reason from first
principles or recognized facts ; who are the slaves
of bookish authority and established formulas, but
who cannot think out of their narrow professional
ruts. There can be no true wisdom and no complete
education without original thought, fresh inspiration,
and a free exercise of the understanding. And with-
out true wisdom, men will be foolish, ignoble,,
degraded, vicious, despite any mental culture, acqui-
sition, refinement, they may possess. And herein

254 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I see clearly why Christ and his apostles assumed
the position they did in respect to the culture and
exercise of the reasoning faculties the powers
of the understanding, whose importance, as a matter
of fact, they clearly recognized, and whose aid they
often invoked as they prosecuted their mission of
redemption to the world. They knew that the
intellect must be baptized by religion and sanctified
in order to attain its best and do its grandest work.
They knew that neither tradition, nor philosophy,
nor blind belief, nor science, nor literature, any more
than spasmodic emotion or rhapsodical sentimental-
ism, could renew the individual soul in righteousness
or save the world from folly, degradation, and
iniquity. They knew, too, that there must be, with
faith in God and the eternal verities, also divine
truth, fundamental principles of duty, deeply rooted
and intrenched in a freely acting judgment and an
enlightened intellect. This brings us to a considera-
tion of the bearing which both their example and
their teaching have upon the matter.

i. Their example. What kind of a public teacher
or preacher was Christ himself ? The record of his
labors shows that he was earnest, sincere, uncompro-
mising, often parabolical and intensely figurative, in
his utterances, and that he always had some great
thought, idea, or principle of virtue or piety to pre-
sent, uphold, and urge upon his auditors, appealing
directly to their reason and judgment no less than
to their feelings and the deeper emotions of their
hearts. He was in no sense a ranting declaimer, a
smooth-tongued rhetorician, an artful manipulator of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 255

words and phrases, arresting the attention of the
crowd and dealing in flattering appeals to ignorance,
superstition, and selfishness, or in terrific denuncia-
tions and threats of impending doom. He was as
calm, sober, unimpassioned, reasonable, as he was wise,
positive, firm, strict, inexorable in his expositions of
truth and duty. He never equivocated, played fast
and loose with principle, or hid the message given
him to deliver and bear witness to in a cloud of
misty verbiage. He spake " as one having authority
and not as the Scribes." This appears in the Ser-
mon on the Mount, in his parables of the Prodigal
Son and the Good Samaritan, in his picture of the
judgment, in his debates with sophistical opposers,
and in his more private intercourse with his disciples.
He always addressed not only the better feelings and
the moral sense in men but their reason and under-
standing, impliedly urging upon his hearers at every
interview the once expressed reproving inquiry,
" Why of yourselves judge ye not what is right ? "

His ambassadors so far as we have reports of their
utterances or writings were men of similar charac-
teristics in this regard. They were not, as a rule,
what would be termed educated, scholarly men, but
men of intellectual vigor and strength, as they were
of good common sense. Like the Master they
indulged in no platitudes or sentimentalisms, but,
conscious of having a message to deliver, they deliv-
ered it directly, tersely, impressively, often with
pungent force. As examples of this, see Peter's
address on the day of Pentecost; also his two
Epistles and the Epistles of James and John.

256 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Paul, the most learned and technically logical of all
the early champions of the cause of Christ, says of
himself, "My speech and my preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demon-
stration of the spirit and of power." i Cor. 11. 4.
His discourse on Mars Hill, in the presence of the
philosophical, refined "men of Athens," was a pro-
found and masterly production, freighted with great
and solemn truths, and will be preserved and valued,
no doubt to the end of time, as one of the grandest
specimens of forensic eloquence charged with a lofty
moral purpose which the world affords. And his
letters, especially that to the Romans, bear upon
their face striking evidence of his intellectual vigor,
reasoning ability, and power of expression, as they do
of his reverent spirit, his lofty aim, and his unfal-
tering devotion to the great Teacher whom he pro-
fessed to follow and to serve. The pertinency of
these observations to the subject in hand lies in
the fact that they show not only what intellectual
gifts the Apostles possessed, but how faithfully they
employed them in the prosecution of their great
life work, and how well calculated their spoken and
written words were to stimulate thought in the
minds of those addressed, and to commend the truths
to which they testified to the deliberate judgment
and understanding of their hearers, ministering
alike to their intellectual vitality and nurture, and
to their moral and spiritual life.

2. Their precepts. These in large number prove
conclusively that their authors were by no means
indifferent to mental culture and the use of the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 257

reasoning powers in the study and practice of reli-
gious truth, but rather held them in high regard,
as the following examples show. " He that received
seed into good ground is he that heareth the word
and understandeth it; who also beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth, some an hundred fold, some sixty,
some thirty." Matt. xiii. 23. " Have ye understood
all these things ? Every scribe instructed in the king-
dom of heaven is like unto a man, a householder, who
bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and
old" Ib. 51, 52. "He called the multitude and
said unto them, Hear and understand." Mark vii.
14 "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what
is right." Luke xiii. 57. "Judge not according to
the appearance but judge righteous judgment."
John vii. 24. "Ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free." John viii. 32. "To
this end was I born and for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."
John xviii. 37. Such is the testimony of the great
Teacher himself bearing directly upon the subject
under consideration. That of the Apostles is no
less explicit and conclusive. Paul, writing to one
of the churches in which he had a profound inter-
est said, "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye
what I say." I Cor. x. 15. "Except ye utter with
the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall
it be known what is spoken?" "I will pray with
the spirit and I will pray with the understanding
also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing
with the understanding also." " I had rather speak

258 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

five words with my understanding * * * than ten
thousand words in an unknown tongue/' "Brethren,
be 'not children in understanding * * * but in under-
standing be men." I Cor. xiv. 9, 15, 19, 20. "I
pray that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may
approve the things that are excellent." Phil, i,
9, 10. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is
good/' i Thes. v. 21. "God hath not given us
the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of
a sound mind." 2 Tim. i. 7. Hear also James.
"Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge
among you? Let him shew out of a good conver-
sation his works with meekness of wisdom."
James in. 13. And John, "The son of God has
come and hath given us an understanding, that we
may know him that is true/' I John v. 20. And
finally Peter, "Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts ; and be ready always to give an answer to
every man that asketh you a reason of the hope
that is in you/' I Peter iii. 15.

We see from these extracts that their authors
recognized the importance of the understanding in
the work of enlightening and redeeming men, and
the duty of employing it in the consideration and
practical illustration of the great lessons of life.
Why this duty should be performed by each and
every one seeking his own and others highest
development and permanent well-being is made
clear by a few reflections.

i. The understanding is an essential, constitu-
tional part of human nature. And without its

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 259

proper and proportional development, activity, use,
there can be no symmetrical, all-sided character,
such as Christianity is designed to promote and
secure; only a malformed, defective one. In its
legitimate and divinely appointed office the religion
of Christ contemplates every department of man's
being, with a view of bringing it into active exer-
cise within its own distinctive limits, and into true
and harmonious relations with all other depart-
ments and with the entire whole ; so that there
may be produced a full-orbed, perfect manhood,
"according to the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ." But this cannot be done if the
intellect is ignored, neglected, or abused. The
animal propensities and passions, appetites and
desires, may be duly alert, fulfilling their several
functions in an orderly way; the emotional nature
the feelings, impulses, aspirations of the heart may
be in full exercise and wisely subordinated to the
law of righteousness ; the moral and spiritual facul-
ties may be also serving their designed uses in
keeping the soul awake to the eternal realties and
to its intrinsic relation to God; but if the reason
be left unemployed and the understanding is not
exercised there is radical defect in the totality of
one's being; manhood is seriously impaired and
the divine design is so far frustrated.

2. Moreover, the reason and understanding, in
the true order of human development and activity,
constitute the controlling element in the nature of
man/ The passions, propensities, desires, appetites,
may sometimes, by their own motion, act wisely

260 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and beneficently, but are far more likely to do
otherwise; they are liable to run into very great
excesses and to work immense mischief, unless
held in check and properly directed. They are
not self-controlled And the same may be said
of the higher human faculties. The affections,
pure as they may be, are yet blind, and capable
of great harm. The conscience is by no means
a sufficient guide unto itself. Unduly exercised,
morbidly active, it has produced a severity or
moroseness of character quite unlike the tender-
ness and grace of Christ ; wrongly directed, it has
fostered the most bitter and unrelenting persecu-
tions. And the religious sentiment, left to its own
unenlightened and unguided impulse, runs readily
into irrational and odious superstition and fanati-
cism. These all need the regulating, directing, all-
controlling power resident in the understanding
animated by the spirit of God, to hold them to
their true office, and to enable them to serve effect-
ually the real ends for which in the infinite plan
they were designed.

3. The intellectual nature of man the reflective,
reasoning faculties the judgment and understand-
ing, are furthermore indispensable to a proper balance
of the other departments of human nature and to the
whole personality ; are necessary to give dignity and
strength to character and nobility to manhood. He
is a weak man, an unreliable man, a man shorn of
real power for good, who is incapable of deep thought,
of comprehending great principles of truth and duty,
of entering by profound study and contemplation

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 261

not only into the secret chambers of the material
universe to bring out therefrom treasures of wisdom
hidden from the foundation of the world, but into
the plans and purposes of God in the realm of souls,
bringing thence eternal verities, and the things that
pertain to the kingdom of heaven. While he, who,
by an intelligent understanding and a sound judg-
ment, is qualified for these exercises and attain-
ments, is invested with something of the everlasting
strength, is clothed upon, in a measure, with the
panoply of God. He is not only strong in himself
to rule every member and faculty of his own being,
to resist temptation, and to stand fast in his own
integrity, but strong to accomplish important ends
in the world, to war against the evils that afflict
humanity, and to build on the earth the habitations
of righteousness, brotherhood, and peace. Strong
too is he to shape the future to finer issues and
help bring in the better era to the children of men.
4. The human intellect bears definite relations
to the truth in every department of existence, as
the eye does to the light, or the ear to harmonious
and delightful music. It is therefore through the
intellect by the culture and use of the intellect
in its higher manifestations through the reason
and unde rstanding that truth is not simply discov-
ered, but comprehended and made real to the con
sciousness. In the same way, and in that way only,
can disc rimination be made between truth and error,
as is necessary in order that error, with all. its
damaging, demoralizing influences and effects, may
be eliminated and put forever away ; and that truth

262 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

be exalted to the supremacy in human life and in
the world which rightly belongs to it. In the same
way, by the legitimate exercise and use of the under-
standing, can the relative value and importance of
different kinds or classes of truth be determined,
and a just distinction be made between truths of
great and those of little value, in themselves con-
sidered or in the conduct of life ; between those
truths that are incidental to human welfare and
happiness and those that are essential and so of
indispensable importance. And the work thus indi-
cated must be done, or men will continue to be in
the future as they have been in the past, the sub-
jects of all sorts of illusions and hallucinations,
falsities and fallacies, and the victims of a vast
multitude of sophistries and deceits, wherewith so
many are beguiled and led away, not only from the
truth but from the God of truth also, to their own
destruction. "The truth," said Jesus, "shall make
you free;" free, not alone from error, but from
folly, sin, and moral death. Therefore to seek the
truth and to know the truth is a primary vital con-
cern with every rational, moral, immortal being ; and
to nurture, train, exercise, and employ those facul-
ties in the human constitution by which truth is
discovered, apprehended, and made serviceable to
the necessities of mankind, are duties never to be
lost sight of, underestimated, or neglected. To do
this is to sin against one's own soul and against
GocJ, the Author of all man's nobler powers.

I have thus given the chief reasons why the
intellectual department of human nature, in the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 263

higher range of its faculties, should be regarded,
nurtured, trained to the utmost extent, and put to
its proper ligitimate uses. Each one of them might
be elaborated and illustrated to an indefinite extent.
But I have said enough to show how naturally the
duty indicated comes within the scope of the prim-
itive morality of the Gospel of Christ, which includes
all the powers and faculties of man's nature as
subjects of its authority, and requires the consecra-
tion of them all to the service of God and man.
Woe be to him who neglects the gift that is in
him ; who hides in a napkin any talent with which
God has enriched his being. To such it shall be
said, " O thou wicked and slothful servant." "Take
the talent from him" and give to him who will use
it wisely and well. "And cast the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness. There shall be weep-
ing and gnashing of teeth." Let us faithfully
regard the obligation Primitive Christianity imposes
upon us in this particular. Then shall we enjoy
and impart to others the blessedness whereunto we
are called in Christ Jesus.

DISCOURSE XIX.

THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE RESPECTING-
THE USE OF TALENTS, ETC.

" Unto whom much is given, of him will much be required."
Luke xn. 48.

"Walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming
the time, because the days are evil." Ephs. v. 15, 16,

"As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all
men; especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
vi. 10.

The primitive Christian morality does not allow
its disciples to lead an irresponsible, idle, careless,
vain, or useless life. It imposes upon every one
professing allegiance to it the obligation to employ
his talent, time, and opportunity with conscientious
fidelity, to the glory of God and for the good of
humanity ; and thus to make existence most benefi-
cent, most noble, and most happy. In this require-
ment and the purpose underlying it true religion
and reason concur. Let us consider then the im-
portant duties which these statements involve
and enjoin.

i. All persons possess what is termed talent,
skill, or capability, in greater or less degree, to
be used wisely and well or to be neglected and
abused. This possession may be natural or acquired.
It may be physical, intellectual, moral, or spiritual.

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 265

It may consist in power of industry, in ingenuity,
judgment, knowledge, or personal influence in
what may be called material, mental, or spiritual
goods ; no matter what it may include or be named
so long as it is an endowment or attainment that
can be exercised or employed in some effective way
to some specific end. Whatever it be, and what-
ever the amount much or little the possessor
is a steward in trust, responsible to God for the
best possible use of what he has. He who has
most has none to lie idle or misuse ; and he who
has least should by no means neglect or disregard
what he has, but be all the more diligent in employ-
ing it to some worthy purpose. All are to occupy
and improve the estate of which they have charge.
All are to give account, sooner or later, for use
and disuse, for improvement and abuse alike. I
need not quote precepts, examples, or illustrations
in proof of these declarations.

The morality whose claims and demands I have
thus clearly indicated is without question a sound,
wholesome, excellent morality, worthy of acceptance
and of universal exemplication. Mankind generally
are prone to assume that those who have, great
talents or capacities of any kind may employ them
chiefly if not wholly for their own advantage, pleas-
ure, or glory. At least they are inclined to think
that such persons, if they devote some certain por-
tion a small portion perhaps of what they have
to generous and noble uses, to the betterment of
human conditions, to causes of reform and charity,
to the promotion of the divine kingdom, they may

266 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

do as they list with the remainder spend it all
upon themselves or upon what conduces to their
own personal profit, aggrandizement, and gratifica-
tion. But Primitive Christianity countenances no
such irresponsibility to God, no such blind devo--
tion to self, even in respect to the least fraction
of one's gifts or faculties, however great or multi-
tudinous they may be. Whatsoever and how-much-
soever one may have of the possessions under notice,
all is to be used, under a deep sense of personal
accountability for the good and happiness of man-
kind, one's self included. The greater, wiser, more
capable I am, the more just, considerate, kind, benevo-
lent, helpful, am I sacredly bound to be towards
those less favored than myself. And if I am ani-
mated by the real spirit of Christ, the happier
shall I be.

Again, mankind are prone to assume that those
who have little talent, wealth, or ability of any kind
are under no sacred obligation to use wisely and
well what they do have, will be held to no very
strict account in the matter, and are of very little
consequence in the world, any way ; and may there-
fore be excused for doing nothing to bless the
world for hiding their talent in a napkin; while,
correspondingly, others may be excused for treating
them with indifference or contempt. But the mor-
ality of the Gospel allows nothing of this on either
hand. It does not measure human responsibility
or human worth by the amount of talent, learning,
worldly accummulations, etc., one may have ; nor by
any great and notable thing one may do, by reason

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 267

of such possessions. It rather teaches that every
soul is of inestimable value in and of itself, as a
creature and child of God, and that every grade of
ability, from the lowest to the highest, is of intrin-
sic importance and will be held to its own proper
responsibility, making the mite of the poor widow,
given out of heartfelt love and loyalty to her Lord,
greater than the most generous contributions of the
opulent capitalist or money-getter rolling in wealth.
It does not excuse but condemns the steward who
had but one talent for burying it in the earth, as
it does not excuse but condemns those of superior
ability and of larger accumulations of whatever
sort for under-estimating or despising their less
fortunate brethren. All are under obligation to do
their best with whatever they possess, as they are
to love and respect, to serve and help one another.
This is a morality worth having; and whatever is
contrary to this is foolish, mean, and undesirable.

2. All persons have time to use or abuse; to-
improve or fritter away to no good purpose. What
may be deemed innocent and approved uses of
time, and how may it be wisely and effectively
improved, according to the spirit and requirements
of Primitive Christianity ? These inquires are essen-
tially answere'd in the following specifications: When
it is employed and devoted (i) To moral and reli-
gious nurture, edification, and fellowship; (2) To-
intellectual training and the acquisition of useful
knowledge; (3) To industrial pursuits and business
activities for the purpose of obtaining the means of
subsistence for one's self and dependents, with a

268 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

surplus for other good uses; (4) To needful rest
from ordinary toil and such recreation and pleasure-
seeking as may contribute to one's health, strength,
and happiness; (5) To travel, within reasonable
limits, and the enlarged acquaintance with the world
and things in it incidental thereto ; (6) To the dis-
charge of the duties pertaining to charity, hospital-
ity, friendship, and kindly social intercourse. Such
are some of the more necessary, fraternal, beneficent,
and justifiable expenditures of time, as the days
and years go by. And they are quite in keeping
with the spirit and letter of our text and of many
other passages of Scripture; such for instance as
the following: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness. " "Be not slothful in busi-
ness." " Be not children in understanding." " Study
to be quiet and to do your own business and to
work with your own hands as we commanded you."
i Thess. iv. u. "When we were with you, this
we commanded you, that if any would not work
neither should he eat." Thess. iii. 10. " Rejoice
with them that do rejoice and weep with them that
weep." "Giving all diligence, add to your faith,
virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge,
temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to
patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly-
kindness; and to brotherly-kindness, charity."
2 Peter i. 5-7.

3. Opportunity for the various duties, pursuits,
and purposes of life comes more or less to all men;
to be improved or neglected as each one may will
or determine. Opportunities there are for religious

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 269

and moral culture, for mental training and attain-
ment, for useful occupation and business cares, for
rest, recreation, and rational amusement, for the
various offices of charity, hospitality, friendship, and
ordinary social intercourse, A few have exceptional
opportunities for these things ; the many, only com-
monplace and customary ones ; still other few,
meager and ineffective ones. Primitive Christianity
imperatively enjoins faithful improvement of each
and all of these; the greatest and the least alike,
as it does of talent and time; excusing no neglect
and duly crediting and honoring fidelity in the
humblest as well as in the most exalted and influ-
ential capacities and positions; the obligation rest-
ing upon each and every one "according to his
several ability." Thus it is said, " Well done good
and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a
few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ;
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Matt. xxv.
23. " Whosoever hath to him shall be given ; and
whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even
that which he seemeth to have." Luke iii. 18.
" He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful
also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is
unjust also in much." Luke xvi. 10. "Take heed
therefore that the light which is in thee be not dark-
ness." Luke xi. 35. "Walk while ye have the light
lest darkness come upon you.*' " While ye have
light, believe in the light that ye may be the chil-
dren of light." John xii. 35, 36. " Stand there-
fore, having your loins girt about with truth and
having on the breastplate of righteousness." "Pray-

270 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ing always with all prayer and supplication in the
spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance.*'
Ephs. xi. 14, 18. "Be ready to every good
work." Titus iii. I. " To do good and to com-
municate forget not; for with such sacrifices God
is well pleased/' Heb xiii. 16 "As we have
therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of
faith." Gal vi. 10.

From the foregoing considerations and quotations
it is made to appear beyond all question or cavil
that the pure, morality of the Gospel of Christ re-
quires those acknowledging allegiance to it and pro-
fessing to be governed by its principles and precepts,
to be a responsible, diligent, upright, sober-minded,
circumspect, intelligent, humane, charitable people,
prepared and ready for every good word and work,
as well as for every new revelation of truth and
duty that may come to them in the order of God's
providence. And is not this sound doctrine a
high and indispensable type of morality ? Undoubt-
edly it is, and absolutely necessary to individual
dignity and happiness, to the welfare of families,
and to the most elevated, refined, desirable condi-
tion of civil and social life. How unchristian and
ignoble is an irresponsible, indolent, thriftless, time-
killing, dawdling man or woman, who spends the
swiftly passing days and years in doing nothing use-
ful, or as a busy-body in other people's matters, or as
a consumer of what some one else has produced.
Such an one is an excrescence upon the body poli-
tic a nuisance and often a pest in human society.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 271

In the light of the lessons thus brought to our
attention, every one should in all seriousness ask
himself the following heart-searching questions :
Who am I? How came I into the world? For
what purpose or end was I created ? In what way
can I realize that purpose or end to myself and to
mankind ? To what good and noble use can I put
my varied powers of body, mind, and soul ? By
what means can I improve my capabilities, my
time, my opportunities, to the best advantage ; rev-
erently toward my Maker, rightfully toward myself,
and fraternally toward my fellow human beings ?
Christianity as Jesus taught and exemplified it sets
forth and magnifies the grand fundamental truth
that life is a trust a sacred trust to be spent
and enjoyed under a living sense of personal respon-
sibility, and to be consecrated to holy aims and
beneficent uses that relate both to the world that
now is and to that which is to come. And this
statement brings to mind several points of inter-
esting inquiry which have been raised touching the
subject under discussion.

i. It has been queried whether this primitive
Christian view of life and its obligations, as
delineated, makes needful provision or allowance
for that freedom from care and anxiety, that refined
and luxurious ease consequent upon large accumu-
lations of wealth, social distinction, hereditary rank,
or some other form of worldly superiority or advan-
tage. The plea is sometimes made by a certain
class of philosophers that man naturally desires
to rise above the necessity of manual or other forms

272 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of labor; the necessity of being harassed by the
details of business, etc., in order that he may be
at liberty to enjoy himself as he pleases, in the
gratification of his inclinations and tastes, so long
as no one is harmed or wronged thereby ; and that
the existence of a class of persons of that charac-
ter in society is calculated to promote the general
welfare and advance the permanent interests of
the race. What have I to say to this criticism of
Primitive Christianity and its theory of life and its
uses ? I answer that no such aristocratic or superior
class is contemplated or can exist under the pro-
visions and injunctions of the religion of the New
Testament. But I may concede that as the world
in its unregenerate state has been from the begin-
ning until now, such a class is a natural and inev-
itable outgrowth of existing conditions of individual
and social life and indispensable to any and every
hitherto attainable form of civilization. And so it
may continue to be for generations to come, or
until the prevailing social and moral order approxi-
mates much more nearly than at present the morality
of the sermon on the mount.

I do not, however, concede that because the
worldly-minded man, or the man content to live and
act upon the existing worldly plane of human affairs*
naturally desires to shirk productive industry, active
service, and all the graver responsiblities of life, so
that he may be wholly at ease and enjoy himself as
he pleases, it is therefore best for himself or for
others that he should do so best for his own
health of body, mind, and spirit, or best for the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 273

community in which he resides and for the world.
I rather consider such a course a misfortune, or
perhaps a calamity to him who follows it and to
others as well. To have no great and noble object
to live for, no useful occupation or calling to pursue,
no mission of active service of truth, virtue, or
humanity to fulfill, is to me as dismal and forbid-
ding as it is foolish and wrong. I have only pity
for a child doomed to grow up amid pampering
wealth, luxury, and ease, and so to be trained to
inertia, helpless dependence, and soulless effeminacy,
or perchance to splenetic restlessness and joyless
discontent, and not to self-reliance, independence
of spirit, and other essential elements of a manly
and noble character. I pity too the man who turns
from the well-earned success of a stirring and hon-
orable business career, loaded with wealth and
worldly advantage, and hastens to stifle and destroy
his finer sensibilities and his more exalted powers
by luxurious indulgence and enervating pleasure.
Child of folly is he, " paying too dear for his whis-
tle." Grinding poverty is deplorable, to be sure.
So is excessive, slavish toil. But not more so than
the opposite extreme at which I have hinted. Solo-
mon found the end of all his riches, pleasures,
and luxuries, to be " vanity and vexation of spirit,"
and by sad experience learned the lesson he put into
Agur's prayer ; " Remove far from me vanity and
lies; give me neither poverty nor riches: Feed me
with food convenient for me: Lest I be full and deny
thee, and say, ' Who is the Lord ' ; or lest I be poor
and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."

274 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

2. There are some who wish to know if it be
not a defect of Primitive Christianity as I expound
it that it has no provision for recreation, amuse-
ment, merrymaking, but seems to hold its disciples
to one continuous, unrelieved strain of sober, ear-
nest work in some department of solid usefulness,
temporal or spiritual ? I reply ( I ) There is little
occasion for positive religious instruction in favor
of anything of this sort, any more than there is of
eating and drinking, since it is sure to assert
its claims as an essential need of human nature in
a way not to be ignored or underestimated. (2)
Christ and his early disciples incidentally recognized
approvingly and participated in the festivities and
pastimes of their day and generation. (3) They
forbade nothing of the kind, only so be it was
innocent and healthful and strictly conformed to
those great principles of truth and duty which were
to govern all human action. It was far better
therefore to leave this matter open and free, as
was done with many other human interests, rather
than to control it by specific precepts and regula-
tions. Besides, if avowed followers of Christ live
up to their privileges and duties they will suffer
little for want of mere professional amusement,
their faith, hope, love, being to them an ever-flowing
fountain of gladness and joy ; while any incidental
diversion or merriment will be as innocent and
pleasurable as it is natural and spontaneous. It is
care-worn worldlings, the devotees of wealth and
fashion, weary plodders in some field of deep
research, and those chasing after emptiness and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 275

vanity, who find life tiresome or unendurable with-
out frequent resorts to artificial pleasures and
delights to cheer them in their onward pilgrimage.
The misfortune of such is that they are liable to
fall into excesses in their search for relaxation and
enjoyment which are perilous alike to health and
morals, and against which they should constantly
be on guard. Innocent and invigorating amusement
held to proper limitations the morality of the Gos-
pel in no wise prohibits or condemns, but allows
and justifies.

3. Again, there are those who depreciate and
make objection to New Testament Christianity on
the ground that it ignores or at least underesti-
mates the importance of scientific research and
attainment, belles-lettres, the culture of the fine
arts, etc., and by implication regards the talent,
time, and opportunity devoted to these and kindred
interests as misdirected, wasted, or abused. To
such objection or criticism I reply that if the things
referred to were absolutely essential to human vir-
tue and happiness, or were a constituent part of
pure and undefiled religion, the point raised would
be of serious consequence. But they are not, in
my judgment Innocent of harm and worthy of
respect and approbation in and of themselves, yet
they are practically good, bad, or indifferent, accord-
ing to the use made of them. They are in their
very nature unmoral, and have no inherent tendency,
independent of conscience and the religious senti-
ment, to render, those devoted to them or mankind
at large truly wise, .upright, pure, generous, benevo-

276 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

lent, Godlike. In fact their devotees, as a class,
are much like the common average of men, selfish,
bigoted, heartless, inhuman, unless their scientific,
aesthetic, or artistic tastes and tempers are softened
and sanctified by a loving and devout spirit. Indeed,
there is a marked tendency among them to an exclu-
sive empiricism or charlatanry, a professional con-
ceit, and a corresponding contempt of those outside
their own special circle, however exemplary and
noble such outsiders may be in all moral and spirit-
ual qualities.

To be sure, the Christian religion does not dis-
tinctively commend and enjoin the several pursuits
referred to; neither does it condemn them or in
in any way hinder progress in them towards the
highest possible results. It rather approves them
as the outcome of the divinely-ordered nature of
man, and as ministers under wise guidance to
human development, growth of character, and the
higher life of the world. Their place in human
thought and confidence, as in the divine plan of
the universe, is a subordinate and not a controlling
one, and, in reference to them as to many other
concerns of humanity, it may be said, "Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
then may all these things be added unto you."
Whenever I see scientists, or artists of any name,
or votaries of literature, or poets, or any other class
devoted to some special line of study or achieve-
ment, treating God, or Christ, or the principles and
precepts of the New Testament disdainfully, or cast-
ing contempt upon the champions or disciples, how-

AtfD ITS CORRUPTIONS. 277

ever humble they may be, of moral and religious
truth, I can but regard them as foolish and blind,
having mistaken the secondary for the primary, and
turning away from divine and eternal realities to those
things that at best are but subordinate and tribu-
tary thereto. Alas for those who, absorbed in the
contemplation of the wonders, and glories of the
material universe, cannot discern in them the foot-
prints of Deity who can not look through nature
up to nature's God. Alas for those literati who are
so bewildered by the scintillations of genius or the
charms of polite and refined literature that they
have no appreciation of moral and spiritual verities,
and of those divine qualities of heart and soul which
are the everlasting adornments of human character,
and which render finite man most like the infinite
Father in heaven. And alas also for those who can
admire the beautiful, the grand, the lovely, in nature
and in art ; in landscape and in sky ; in painting
and sculpture; but who have no eye to see the
transcendant beauty of holiness, the loveliness of
truth, justice, mercy, self-sacrifice; the grandeur and
majesty of a life consecrated to noble ends and aims,
and radiant with the gentleness, grace, and peace of
Christ.

I therefore conclude the present discourse, which
completes my exposition of the distinctive morality
of Primitive Christianity, by repeating the claim that
such morality as Christ taught by both precept and
example, in its application to the use of the talents,
the time, and the opportunity of which we all are
to greater or less extent in charge, is of pre-eminent

278 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

and unrivalled excellence. And it becomes us all,
if we are believers in that morality, and acknowl-
edge the obligations it imposes upon us, to order
our lives in the respects brought to notice accord-
ing to the rules and requirements herein set forth,
illustrated, and commended to the favorable consid-
eration of my hearers. So shall we be found worthy
to receive the approving plaudit of our own con-
sciences and of the righteous Judge of all his sub-
jects, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thoti
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things ; enter into the joy of your
Lord."

All hail, thou promised day,

When ethics so sublime
Shall the last vestige sweep away

Of selfishness and crime !

When Zion's Prince of Peace

Shall every wrong redress;
Shall bring to slaves of sin release,

And all earth's millions bless.

Then shall the nations sing,

In joyous grand refrain,
Glad anthems to their heavenly king,

Whose right it is to reign.

DISCOURSE XX

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN MORALITY vs. WORLDLY
MORALITY.

"Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his
savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good
for nothing but to be cast out and tcr be trodden under foot
of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set
on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and
put it under a bushel but on a candle-stick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven." Matt. v. 13-16.

" If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how
great is that darkness!" Matt. vi. 23.

" They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth. As thou
hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them
into the world." John xvii. 16-18.

Having given in previous discourses a somewhat
thorough exposition of my views upon the primitive
morality of the Gospel of Christ, it is now incum-
bent on me to unveil the more noteworthy corrup-
tions thereof which have taken place in the church
since the middle of the second century and which
to a considerable extent have been perpetuated unto
the present day. In order to do this effectively, it
seems necessary at the start to take a hasty glance
at what may be termed worldly morality in general,

280 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

as distinguished from Christian morality, and espec-
ially in its prevailing form at the time when Jesus
appeared in Judea and went about doing good.
Also to bring to notice in contrast therewith, the
actual virtue and piety existing among Christian
believers before any marked deterioration took place.
By this method the cause, the nature, the progres-
sive evolution, and the extent of the mischief done
can be the more fully disclosed and understood.
And so I beg leave to call attention to a few impor-
tant particulars.

i. It is to be remembered that the world as a
whole as well as each and every considerable uni-
tary portion of it, like a nation, or a race, or a tribe,
has always had a morality of some sort ; that is,
some acknowledged standard of duty some com-
monly recognized ideas of what is right, proper,
allowable in human conduct, and what not so.
The general moral standard of mankind at large
differs from age to age as does that of the several
nations or peoples of the earth. But some such
standard always exists, higher or lower, more or
less perfect. It is a legitimate outgrowth of the
moral element in human nature. Some standards
have been and are essentially religious ; others,
ethical; others philosophical, or civic, or chivalric,
as the case may be ; and others of a mongrel char-
acter difficult to classify or name. What may be
called worldly morality, or the morality of mankind
as a whole, is of this complex nature. It is a con-
sensus of opinion or average moral judgment derived
from the various religions, superstitions, philoso-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 281

phies, civic laws, codes of honor, social customs,
personal habits and practices, prevailing at any
given period of human history. It is much the
same with the morality of any particular nation or
group of kindred nations. In select circles and
among the more closely allied portions of the peo-
ple, we find more definite and sometimes stringent
standards of duty and righteousness ; with the more
loosely affiliated and less intelligent and moral,
rather indefinite and elastic ones ; and with the
gross multitude, very vague and easygoing ones.
In general society and throughout the community
at large in any land or time, the law of the state
or nation interwoven with general custom and the
prevailing fashion, and having a background of mili-
tary necessity, determines to the large majority of
people the course of conduct to be pursued in the
ordinary affairs of life. Even to this standard many
prove delinquent, and have to be made subject to
it by severe discipline and the power of mag-
istracy. Beyond and above this there may be to
certain ones some vague superstitious fear of a
vindictive God and His possible retributions, about
which, however, they practically care but little,
except when startled by some frightful calamity or
aroused by pungent and declamatory exhortation.
It is because there are so many people of this
description in the world so many who have no
higher law of duty to live by that human govern-
ments, fortified by penal laws and military force, have
always been indispensable to civil and social order
and the common welfare. And they will never

282 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

cease to be so until by the regenerating processes
of truth and love such people in large numbers
shall no longer exist upon the earth. Christianity
proposes to rid the world of them by such processes,
which shall result in raising them to its own sub-
lime level, where a living sense of duty in their
own souls and a clear revelation of the will and
law of God shall hold them back from overt acts
of wrong and keep their feet in the way of right-
eousness, without the aid of magistrates and courts,
of penal inflictions and the strong arm of injurious
force. Meanwhile, the more respectable and refined,
those somewhat higher in the moral scab, as they
are in manners and in social position, yet bound to
the same fundamental system of civil and social
order as they are partners in it, will have made
corresponding advance, contributing their propor-
tionate share to the general uplifting and enlight-
enment, to the diffusion of higher and nobler
principles of action and a humaner spirit, and to the
coming of the day when God shall write His law
upon the hearts of men and they shall be governed
thereby rather than by human enactments, popular
opinion, prevailing custom, and the fashion of the
time. Primitive Christianity demands of its con-
fessors fealty to its own high standard of morality
based upon the two great commands of love to
God and man, and disregard of all lower ones as
more or less treasonable to Him whose right it is to
rule, and prejudicial to human good and happiness.

2. And so I am led to remark that it is hard
to rise above the prevailing morality of one's age

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 283

and country and still harder to keep above it per-
sistently and continuously. The reasons for this
are easily ascertained and brought to light, (i) By
so doing one loses sympathy, social position, van-
tage ground, and many desirable possessions and
enjoyments. To be unpopular, to stand alone, to
give up agreeable associations, as one must do in
such a case to incur obloquy, ostracism, censure,
denunciation perhaps, is painful to the great major-
ity of people. ( 2 ) He who dissents from the com-
mon judgment of his fellow-men cuts himself off
from most of the prerogatives, honors, and emolu-
ments which they are ready to give to their favorites
and those ready to further their special ends and
aims. He must do his work for God and man in
humble, unappreciated, thankless ways, requiring
that keen moral insight, fidelity to duty, courage,
and firmness which few men possess or can com-
mand. ( 3 ) One seeking to live by a higher stand-
ard than that of the general public must for con-
science 1 sake forego many opportunities of doing-
the good he desires in co-operation with others by
customary social and political methods and means,
on account of the obligations and responsibilities he
is required to assume as a condition of such co-
operation. At the same time, for refusing to accede
to the prescribed conditions and thus cutting him-
self off from activities in which he would be happy
to engage, he must suffer the reproaches of less
enlightened and less conscientious persons who
accuse him of standing idly by when a wrong
needs correcting or a right thing needs promotion,

584 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and doing nothing for the accomplishment of the
desirable and praiseworthy object in view. Yet
such a person true to his principles and faithful to
the higher light that has been given him, is, in the
long run, doing more for the cause of truth, for his
country and his kind, than the most stirring actor
-on the lower plane of temporizing expediency and
immediate seeming success. Few are wise and
good enough to maintain so high and impregnable
a position, necessary though it be to the world's
regeneration. And it is no wonder that the early
church after a time fell from it under the influence
of powerful temptation, grew corrupt, and by a fatal
compromise lowered its standard to the moral level
of that of the world at large as represented by the
Roman empire, within whose boundaries it was set
up. Even in our own day we see reformers, philan-
thropists, professing Christians of every name, doing
the same thing; conforming to the maxims and
practices of political managers and counting the
instrumentality of civil government as the chief
staff of accomplishment. Religion, philanthropy,
moral reform are of little value in their esteem as
.agencies of human progress and redemption without
the sceptre, the purse, and the sword of political
power; without the caucus, the ballot, the penal
statute, the court-house, the prison, the gallows, and
a mighty armament of deadly force. Not so thought
Christ and his primitive disciples, who stood firmly
and uncompromisingly aloof from and grandly above
-everything of the kind, as they wrought their blessed
work.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 285-

3. And now let us consider what was the actual
prevailing morality of primitive Christian days in Pal-
estine and throughout the then known world. There
were at that time, no doubt, as there always have
been, individuals and associated groups of people,
whose ethical code was far above that of the
general mass of men. And the common code
had, without question, many excellent and com-
mendable features. But the average moral status
of society was nevertheless deplorably low and vic-
ious. Josephus gives us a graphic description of
it as it was among the Jews. We can hardly
conceive of anything more revolting. And Roman
historians and other Gentile authors testify to the
abominations which existed in all directions, among
all ranks and grades of social and political, and
even of religious, life. Many of the gods of the
Greek and Roman mythologies were infamous in
character rapacious, unjust, wanton, vindictive^
cruel. Naturally those who worshiped and imi-
tated them were not likely to excel them in virtue
and moral worth.

The morality of the leading Jewish religionists
of that day of those who ministered at the altars,
of faith and piety, who served in the sanctuaries of
the Most High among the ancient people of God,
was scarcely better than that of the lower classes,
or that of the Gentile nations. Its quality is readily
determined by the fact that it so often fell under
the ban of the Master's stern rebuke and condemna-
tion. His most emphatic denunciations, his most
poignant woes, were pronounced against men stand-

286 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ing high in the Church chief-priests, Scribes,
Pharisees "who make broad their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garments, and
love the uppermost room at feasts, and the chief
seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the mar-
kets, and to be called of men Rabbi, Rabbi/' for
they were "like whited sepulchres which indeed
appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead
men's bones and all uncleanness." They "paid
tithe of mint, and annis, and cummin, and omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy,
and faith;" they "devoured widow's houses and
for a pretense made long prayers ; " they " made
clean the outside of the cup and the platter but
within they were full of extortion and excess ;"
they " bound heavy burdens and grievous to be borne
and laid them on men's shoulders, but would not
move them with one of their fingers;" "all their
works they did to be seen of men ;" they "appeared
outwardly righteous unto men but within they were
full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Such being the
character of the leaders in the Jewish church and
ministers of religion, it is no marvel that the stand-
ard of morality among the masses of the people
was low and inadequate, or that the representation
of the abounding profligacy and wickedness of Jew-
ish society in the times under notice was substan-
tially correct true to the existing facts in the
case.

And Paul in numerous passages of his epistles,
notably in the first chapter of his letter to the
Romans, portrays the widely existing demoraliza-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 287

tion of non-Jewish people and nations. " Professing
themselves to be wise " he says, " they became fools
and changed the glory of the invisible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Where-
fore God gave them up to uncleanness through the
lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own
bodies between themselves ; who changed the truth
of God into a lie and served and worshipped the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Rom. i. 22-25. And again : "Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder,
debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors
of evil things, disobedient to parents, without under-
standing, covenant breakers, without natural affec-
tion, implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the
judgment of God that they which commit such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure in those that do them." Rom. i.
29-32. A gruesome and revolting picture truly,
but not more so than the facts in the case, as
attested to by Gentile writers themselves, warrant
and corroborate.

Over against this gross and widely-prevailing
immorality and brutishness stands the pure ethical
ideal of the Gospel of Christ, as I have in previous
discourses delineated it ; an ideal born of the right-
ousness of the infinite God, taught and practically
illustrated, first by the Master himself and after-
ward by those professing allegiance to him and

288 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

authorized to propagate the truth and grace which
came by him as far and wide as possible among
men. That ideal they magnified and proclaimed
with a fidelity and self-sacrificing devotion unprec-
edented in the history of mankind. And their
success was as marvelous as it was sublime. In
the space of two centuries they wrought among
large numbers of the common people of Asia
Minor, Greece, and Rome, a moral revolution ;
most radical, salutary, expansive, the results whereof
no language can adequately describe. Their work
did not reach its culmination till near the end
of the third century, though it began to lose some-
what of its power a hundred years before ; from
which time it gradually declined until finally over-
come and brought to an end by the overwhelming
forces of worldliness, political ambition, and sinful
indulgence, marshalled against it.

That the ideal morality of the Gospel of Christ
was to a large degree exemplified in the early
church is the testimony of both sacred and so-
called profane history. The enemies of the new-
religion, who, for political or other reasons, sought
to hinder its progress and overthrow it, were busy
in inventing all sorts of slanders against its disci-
ples, in order to create a feeling of hostility to them
in the public mind. They charged them with vari-
ous criminalities with a view of having them brought
before the civil tribunals and condemned, either as
traitors to the government or as dangerous elements
in society. To these unfounded and malicious cal-
umnies numerous refutations or apologies were

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 289

written by prominent Fathers in the church, who
were therefore called Apologists, some of the more
masterly of which have been preserved to this day,
affording us testimonies worthy of notice in this
connection. They were designed to enlighten the
minds of the more influential in general society
and in the government and so allay increasing
hostility and prevent persecution. To some extent,
no doubt, the object in view was accomplished.
From these Apologies I subjoin a few extracts.

Justin Martyr, one of the most eminent of Chris-
tian Fathers, living in the second century, in his
plea for his brethren addressed to the emperor,
Antoninus Pius, which was instrumental in bringing
the then existing persecution to an end, writes thus:
"We follow the only unbegotten God through his
son ; we, who formerly delighted in fornication but
now embrace chastity alone ; we, who formerly used
magical arts, dedicate ourselves to the good and
unbegotten God ; we, who valued above all things
the acquisition of wealth and possessions now bring
what we have into a common stock and communicate
to every one in need ; we, who hated and destroyed
one another and on account of their different man-
ners would not live with men of a different tribe,
now, since the coming of Christ, live familiarly
with them and pray for our enemies, and endeavor
to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live con-
formably to the precepts of Christ." Ante-Nicene
Library, Vol. 77, /. 17. "We have been taught,
and are convinced, and do believe that He (God)
accepts those only who imitate the excellences that

290 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

reside in Him ; temperance, and justice, and phil-
anthropy, and as many virtues as are peculiar to a
God who is called by no proper name." Ib. pp.
13, 14. "We ought not to strive, neither has He
( Christ ) desired us to be imitators of wicked men ;
but He has exhorted us to lead all men by patience
and gentleness from shame and the love of evil.
And this indeed is proved in the case of many
who were once of your way of thinking, but have
changed their violent and tyrannical disposition*
being overcome by the constancy which they have
witnessed in their neighbors' lives, or by the extraor-
dinary forbearance they have observed in their
fellow-travellers when defrauded, or by the honesty
of those with whom they have transacted business."
Ib. p. 20. "On the day called Sunday all who
live in cities or in the country come together in
one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or writ*
ings of the prophets are read ; * * * the president
verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of
these good things. Then we all rise together and
pray and * * * when our prayer is ended, bread
and wine and water are brought ; * * * and there
is a distribution to each * * * and to those who
are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And
they who are well to do and willing give what each
thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with
the president who succors the orphans and widows
and those who through sickness or any other cause
are in want, and those who are in bonds, and the
strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes
care of all who are in need." Ib, p. 65.

AND ITS CORRUPTION'S. 291

Athenagoras, a Grecian philosopher converted to
Christianity, in an appeal to one of the emperors
disproving the charges of atheism, profligacy, and
cannibalism that were current against Christians,
says: "We have learned not only not to return blow
for blow, nor to go to law with those who plunder
and rob us, but to those who smite us on one side
of the face to offer the other side also, and to
those who take away our coat to give likewise our
cloak. 1 ' Ib. p. 376. "Allow me here to lift up my
voice boldly in loud and audible outcry, pleading
as I do before philosophic princes. For who of
those that reduce syllogisms, and clear up ambigui-
ties, and explain etymologies, etc. and who promise
their disciples by these and such like instructions
to make them happy ; who of them have so purged
their souls as instead of hating their enemies to
love them ; and instead of speaking ill of those
who have reviled them * * * to bless them and to
pray for those who plot against their lives?" "But
among us you will find uneducated persons and
artisans and old women who if they are unable by
words to prove the benefit of our doctrine yet by
their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their
persuasion of its truth; they do not rehearse speeches
but manifest good works ; when struck they do not
strike again ; when robbed they do not go to
law; they give to those that ask them and love
their neighbors as themselves/' Ib. pp. 386, 7.
"Our account lies not with human laws which
a bad man can evade * * * but we have a law
which makes the measure of rectitude to consist

292 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in dealing with our neighbors as ourselves. " Ib.
p. 416.

These views of the high morality of the follow-
ers of Christ during the opening centuries of our
era, though given by witnesses from within the pale
of the church, are yet entitled not simply to respect-
ful consideration but to unhesitating confidence.
The circumstances under which they were origi-
nally made public and the effect produced by them
are a sufficient warrant for such confidence. More-
over, they receive substantial corroboration from so
distinguished a historian as Edward Gibbon, whose
well-known skeptical turn of mind relieves him of
all suspicion of partiality for disciples of Christ in
either ancient or modern times. In the Fifteenth
Chapter of his "History of the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire" he testifies in numerous
paragraphs to the exceptional moral character of
the primitive Christian, who, he says, "demon-
stated his faith by his virtues;" adding that "it
was very justly supposed that the divine persuasion,
which enlightened or subdued the understanding,
must, at the same time, purify the heart and direct
the actions of the believer." He also undertakes
to present certain reasons or motives which in his
judgment "might render the lives of the primitive
Christians much purer and more austere than those
of their Pagan contemporaries or their degenerate
successors."

Such then was the morality of the followers of
the great Nazarene in those days when even their
enemies were constrained to exclaim, "See how

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 293

these Christians love one another." Oh, that this
sublime morality had been transmitted in its integ-
rity and purity, faithfully and incorruptibly down to
our own age ? What a vast and glorious regenera-
tive work would have been wrought ere this, and
how much nearer than now should we be to the
perfect kingdom of God on the earth.

DISCOURSE XXL

INCIPIENT CORRUPTION'S OF PRIMITIVE
CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

kt Ye did run well. Who did hinder you that ye should not
obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that
calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."
GaL v. 7-9.

I am now to treat of the corruptions which tar-
nished the surpassing splendors of primitive Chris-
tian Morality during a brief period subsequent to
the middle of the second century, confining myself
in the present discourse to what transpired between
that dale and the year 325, which was signalized
by the union of church and state under the auspices
of Constanline the Great, first Christian emperor
of Rome. In volume one of this work I traced
the development of theological corruption in those
early as well as in later times, and in the opening
chapters of the present ,one have done the same
in respect to the perversion of what I call the
pietistic side of religion. The causes that wrought
mischief in those particulars produced a correspond-
ing effect upon the characters and lives of Christian
believers, upon the moral standing of the church.
It was difficult to sustain such a pure and exalted
theology, piety, or morality as Primitive Christian-

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 295

ity embodied against the opposing downward pres-
sure of the unregenerate world, and the wonder is
that they remained firm and unyielding as long as
they did; the moral element withstanding the
adverse forces more persistently and successfully
than the others. That did not show any percepti-
ble indications of compromise or deterioration till
towards the end of the second century, and then
not to an alarming extent. In fact, it displayed
great and aggressive vigor in most respects till after
the middle of the third century, and to a still later
period maintained a marked superiority to the aver-
age standing of the people of the Roman Empire.
But the virus of corruption had been introduced
into the Christian brotherhood, ancj had begun to
work mischief in various noticeable ways. Some
of these I beg leave to specify, following as nearly
as I can the historic order of their appearance.

I. About the first flagrant departure from the
simplicity and purity of the primitive morality was
the use and partial sanction of pious frauds for the
promotion of good objects. Eminent pagan philoso-
phers, like Plato and Pythagoras, are said to have
justified certain kinds of deceit and falsehood when
worthy ends could be gained thereby, and espe-
cially in cases of supposed great necessity. And
certain philosophical converts to Christianity enter-
taining that view, held and proclaimed the same
ethical theory in respect to spurious miracles,
legends, etc., which were calculated to arrest atten-
tion, multiply converts, and strengthen, as was
thought, the Christian cause. Such expedients won

296 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

their way into favor and were strenuously defended
by casuists of considerable eminence. Lying was
of course condemned in the abstract and as a gen-
eral rule of social intercourse ; but there were cases
when it would be so strikingly serviceable to the
church cases in which it would so silence oppos-
ers, convince doubters, and increase adherents, that
it was at least allowable if not indispensable. Yet
it was absolutely contrary to pure Christian ethics,
and the more reprehensible the better the object
to be gained by it. For a bad cause is less dis-
graced and injured by deceit and falsehood than a
good one. And the holier a cause the worse it is
to commit any wrong in support of it. Alas, not
so in the judgment of carnally minded zealots, and
artful dissemblers in church or state ! With such
"the end sanctifies the means; " and speedy suc-
cess proves fitness of policy, no matter what moral
principle is violated or what moral injury follows-
Pure morality forbids all such theories and all con-
duct based upon them. Its dictum is, " Putting
away lying speak every man truth with his neigh-
bor." The worst man must not be assailed by
slander or misrepresentation, nor the worst institu-
tion ; much less is the best to be defended or
helped by such means. The devil is not to be
cast out nor is God to be exalted by the best-
meant falsehood imaginable. Nevertheless, the
temptation is too strong for ordinary virtue to
resist, and lying for righteousness' sake has seldom
been out of fashion in any exciting movement ;
religious, philanthropic, reformatory, or political.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 297

Yet it is an offense and an abomination to an
enlightened conscience, whether practiced by a
sworn Jesuit, a sectarian zealot, a fiery iconoclast,
or an unscrupulous politician. A little leaven of
this sort leaveneth the whole lump. So it was in
the days of which I am speaking. The church
was clandestinely inoculated with the virus of this
immorality, an,d though seemingly a little matter
and harmless at first, it yet increased in amount and
in malignancy until the whole mass was infected
and demoralized by it. Of its more open and out-
rageous excesses and mischiefs I shall speak
hereafter.

2. Clerical pride, ambition, and usurpation crept
stealthily into the church and seriously contaminated
it. The first apostles, evangelists, pastors and teach-
ers engaged in the maintenance of Christian institu-
tions and in the propagation of Christian truth
exercised only a moral and spiritual authority on
a fraternal level with their lay brethren. They
were humble, unassuming, self-sacrificing instruc-
tors and helpers of the people; loved, trusted,
heard, followed, as divinely-gifted servants of God,
not as masters and "lords over God's heritage."
They remembered the injunction of Jesus not to
assume official authority, not to exercise arbitrary
power, not to be called Rabbi, Rabbi. They
claimed dominion over no one's faith, they dictated
no fixed ecclesiastical policy, they desired no ser-
vile homage, but in all things pertaining to the
administration of church affairs or to the common
welfare they took counsel of their fellow-disciples

298 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and united harmoniously with them in the adjudi-
cation of all matters in which they had a common
interest. And as they went forth disseminating
the principles of the Gospel, diffusing its spirit,
and extending its power from city to city and from
country to country, the churches they established
were independent of each other, having no bonds
of ecclesiastical confederation save those of frater-
nity and mutual charity.

Dr. Mosheim the distinguished church historian
already quoted says, " Each Christian assembly was
a little state governed by its own laws, which were
either enacted or at least approved by the society."
"But," he adds, "in process of time all the Churches
of a province were formed into one large ecclesias-
tical body, which, like confederate states, assembled
at certain stated times to deliberate about the com-
mon interests of the whole." "These councils, of
which we find not the smallest trace before the
middle of this (the second) century, changed the
whole face of the churches and gave it a new form ;
for by them the ancient privileges of the people
were considerably diminished and the power and
authority of the bishops greatly augmented." " At
their first appearance in these general councils,
they acknowledged that they were no more than
delegates of their respective churches, and that
they acted in the name and by the appointment
of their people. But they soon changed this hum-
ble tone, imperceptibly extended the limits of their
authority, turned their influence into dominion and
their counsels into laws ; and openly asserted at

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 29&

length that Christ had empowered them to pre-
scribe to his people authoritative rules of faith and
manners." "Another effect of these councils was
the gradual abolition of that -equality which reigned
among all the bishops in the primitive times. 1 ''
"This occasioned the creation of a new order of
ecclesiastics, who were appointed in different parts
of the world as heads of the church, and whose
office it was to preserve the consistence and union
of that immense body whose members were so-
widely dispersed among the nations. Such were
the nature and office of the patriarchs, among whom
at length, ambition, having reached its most inso-
lent period, formed a new dignity, investing 'the
bishop of Rome and his successors with the title
and authority of prince of the patriarchs." EccL
History, Second Century \ Part 77, Chap. 2.

At the same time the clergy began to assume,
and soon persuaded the people, that they had suc-
ceeded in the Christian church to the "character,
rights, and privileges of the Jewish priesthood.""
So the bishops claimed the dignity of high priests,,
the proselyters or elders that of priests, and the
deacons that of Levites. Thus pride, assumption,
and usurpation, having gained such vantage-ground,
went on from bad to worse. And before the second
century closed, Victor, Bishop of Rome, haughtily
excommunicated the Asiatic Christians, clerical and
lay, for refusing to celebrate the paschal day, so
called, contrary to his orders. In this display of
arrogant folly, be assumed to be the head of the
entire church, with absolute power to issue decrees.

300 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and ecclesiastical laws for no better reason than
that he was the metropolitan bishop of the empire.
But it amounted to nothing more than an exhibi-
tion of his insolent arrogance and conceit, and an
indication of the demoralizing process which was
going on in the church. During the third century
these mischiefs became gross and chronic as appears
from further extracts:

"Many (of the clergy) were sunk in luxury and
voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arrogance, and
ambition, possessed with a spirit of contention and
discord, and addicted to many other vices that cast
an undeserved reproach upon the holy religion of
which they were the unworthy professors and min-
isters." "The bishops assumed, in many places,
a princely authority, particularly those who had the
greatest number of churches under their inspection,
and who presided over the most opulent assemblies.
They appropriated to their evangelical function the
splendid ensigns of temporal majesty, a throne,
surrounded with ministers ; exalted above his equals
the servant of the meek and humble Jesus, and
sumptuous garments dazzled the eyes and the
minds of the multitude into an ignorant veneration
for this usurped authority. The effects of a cor-
rupt ambition were spread through every rank of
the sacred order. Ib. Third Century, Part II,
Chap. 2.

In view of these statements, which might be
greatly extended, it is sufficient to remark that such
a clergy, who, by their official position had great
influence over the laity, very naturally and inevita-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 301

bly wrought great harm to the church, reducing its
average morality to a sad state of degeneracy and
preparing the way for that malign union of the
civil and ecclesiastical powers which ere long took
place, to the practical obliteration of those great
moral and spiritual qualities which had previously
characterized the church and made it the light of
the world.

3. Quite in harmony with the growing corrup-
tions spoken of and their degrading effect upon
the character and life of the common Christian
fraternity, another very naturally was developed,
scarcely less prejudicial to the interests of pure and
undefiled religion, in itself considered and in its
influence upon those affected by it, viz.: an aban-
donment of hitherto cherished peace principles and
an ambition for military service and distinction.
Before the year 150 no professed Christian is known
to have been enrolled in the Roman or any other
army. All participation in the arts of war was
universally denounced by the church down to that
date and by the majority of its members for a
hundred years afterward. One of the chief charges
made by the pagan polemical writers, as well as by
the representatives of the civil power, against the
Christians was that they would not become soldiers
or fight, even in support of the government. Some
who were conscripted refused to bear arms and
were put to death. Many others were subjected to-
imprisonment and various disabilities on account of
their uncompromising scruples against taking the life
of their fellow-men or otherwise doing them harm.

502 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

But after pious frauds and priestly arrogance
gained a foot-hold in the church it was perfectly
natural and easy for the military spirit a love of
warlike display and martial ambition to follow in
their wake. They all belong to. the same demoral-
izing category of worldly apd unchristian habits
and practices, born of a frame of mind utterly
antagonistic to the mind of Christ. To be sure,
the defection in respect to all these things was at
first very slight, as the influence producing it was
also very subtle and unsuspected, but, once started,
it, in each case, grew with ever-increasing rapidity
and virulence. This was no less so with the evil
of militarism than with that of lying to promote
the cause of truth, or of priestly domination and
dazzling ecclesiastical equipage in order to gain
accessions to the church and enhance the power
and glory of Christ's kingdom. By slow and sure
degrees that evil, notwithstanding here and there a
faithful testimony against it and a heroic effort to
resist it, became strongly intrenched in the masses
of both clergy and laity, and the primitive peace-
loving, war-opposing character of the church was,
to all practical intents and purposes, utterly de-
stroyed. And when, at the end of the first quarter
of the fourth century, the contest arose between
the professed Christian Constantine and his pagan
rivals for the imperial sceptre, not only the prayers
but the swords of nearly the entire church, in its
then demoralized condition, were enthusiastically
thrown into his end of the scale, and this probably
turned it decisively and triumphantly in his favor,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 303

thus bringing the greatest empire of antiquity nom-
inally under the standard of the cross. That event-
ful consummation, achieved by force and arms,
seemed, in the estimation of the Christian populace,
to render war conclusively justifiable when waged
for the purpose of extending the boundaries of
Christ's kingdom and of lifting his church to a
position of commanding importance among the
nations of the earth. From that day, which wit-
nessed the complete submergence of the primitive
morality of the Gospel beneath the waves of worldly
expediency and ambition and its sycophantic subjec-
tion to political domination, only a lean minority of
avowed believers in Christ have stood faithfully by
his teaching and his example in the matter under
notice. The great bulk of both clergy and laity
through the intervening generations and ages have
clung tenaciously to all the secular, social, political,
and other advantages and emoluments derived or
supposed to be derived from the sceptre, purse, and
sword of the existing civil government, whatever
its name, character, or form of administration might
be. And among the stoutest and most indomitable
champions of the mighty war system of the world
and its vast complex enginery of bloodshed and
death in modern times, have been ministers
and laymen of different branches of the church.
However much they may extol and glorify the
great Prince of Peace in their religious services
and convocations, they have little regard foe him
as such in many of the most important con-
cerns of life, and in times of great excitement and

304 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

peril, in the momentous crises which from time to
time come to men and to nations, they deem his
spirit of perfect love inadequate and pitiably weak,
trample his most sacred precepts and principles' in
the dust as unworthy of practical consideration, and
postpone an application of his teachings touching
human brotherhood and the treatment of enemies
to human conduct in its larger activities to some
better coming day of the world's history.

I have mentioned three of the most prominent
and influential particulars in which the church had
become sadly degenerate and corrupt at the time
of the ascendency of Constantine the Great to the
throne of the Caesars, making possible its union
with the civil government under his imperial sway.
There were many minor ones which might be
brought, to view and descanted upon, if the demands
of the subject in hand required it. It is plainly
evident that those adverted to could not have
existed to the extent indicated and received the
general approval and sanction of ministry and peo-
ple, without giving birth to and being accompanied
by a multitude of kindred, though perhaps less
pernicious and offensive, immoralities. Many of
these will be brought to notice in subsequent dis-
cussions of this series of discourses. I therefore
proceed to inquire how we can account for these
moral backslidings and degeneracies.

I. We can say to begin with that they were
natural and inevitable under the circumstances.
Human nature in an undeveloped, unregenerate
state is lamentably imperfect and weak prone to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 305

wrong-doing and easily swerved from the path of
virtue and honor ; easily tempted to be false to its
own best impulses, aspirations, and convictions.
And then the general tone of society at the time
when these things occurred was morally low and
so in no way capable of fostering or stimulating
the higher and nobler qualities of human character.
Men were ignorant, superstitious, selfish, brutal in
many respects and to a wide extent. If Christian-
ity was to be spread abroad in the world, if it was
to go forth out of Judea and Palestine, it must be
first preached to men as they were men whose
hearts were uncongenial to the truths of the heav-
enly kingdom, living in communities indifferent or
hostile to its animating spirit and sacred lessons
and under the care of the eternal providence take
its chances. Its primitive purity and excellence
were not only in striking contrast to the then pre-
vailing moral tone to the opinions, feelings, pur-
poses, habits and practices of men, but were a
constant rebuke to them, and so little calculated
to gain popular approval and acceptance. And yet
its early successes were alike astonishing and salu-
tary. The common people heard Jesus gladly.
The day of Pentecost witnessed a marvelous trans-
formation and multiplication of believers under the
preaching of Peter. Paul went out through Asia
Minor and Greece, even to Rome, proclaiming the
Gospel, founding churches, and extending far and
wide the name and power of the Nazarene. The
divine contagion spread from village to village, from
city to city, from province to province, until it

306 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

reached the very centers of Grecian refinement and
Roman power, proving its heavenly origin by the
uplifting, purifying, humanizing, spiritualizing influ-
ence and effect it produced upon the tempers,
thoughts, manners, and lives of thos$ who gave it
hospitable welcome. Its progress during the first
centuries of our era was one of the marvels of
human history, to which even skeptical writers of
modern times make ample acknowledgment.

And yet its pure wine of grace and truth had to be
poured into earthen vessels, none too clean at best,
and thence, distributed to others also containing
more or -less contaminating and neutralizing odors
or dregs, and ,so on indefinitely. And when; with
the advance of time and increase of numbers, the
glamour of popular favor and the promise of politi-
cal and civil power dimmed the moral vision of
believers and beguiled their hearts, what but a fall-
ing away from the original standard of virtue and
righteousness what but degeneracy and corrup-
tion could have been expected? Even at this late
day we find how difficult it is to put new truths,
principles, and purposes, into minds nominally will-
ing to receive them without having them more or
.less modified, dilated, neutralized, by the chronic
condition of those minds and by the perverse influ-
ence of social and political surroundings. And how
much more difficult it is to have, those truths, prin-
ciples, and purposes, expressed in the habits and
practices of individual life and in the customs and
institutions of society. Pre-existing constitutional
tendencies, education, and the prevailing currents

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. SOT

of the world at large, are too powerful to be wholly
overcome in the very best of men and women
much more so in the great mass of people.

2. But in reviewing the history of the church
during the second and third centuries and noting
the deterioration which was going on within its
membership, it is due to the facts in the case to
say that, sad as it was, it did not sink to the level
of the old heathenism from which Christian con-
verts had chiefly come, or of that still prevailing
in the world around them. Christianity at its
lowest ebb was an improvement upon the religions
and philosophies of the communities and countries
in which it gained a foothold and became a perma-
nent institution. The morality represented by such
religions and philosophies, with a few bright excep-
tions, was horribly cruel, licentious, and debasing.
The masses of the people under it were grossly
corrupt and vile, and were crushed to the earth
.beneath the power of an unscrupulous and merci-
less despotism. Christianity wherever it gained the
ascendency, lifted them out of the mire and filth
of their own degradation, and measurably removed
the burdens beneath which they had so long suf-
fered and groaned in anguish and despair. It
imparted to them new hope and a measure of new
life. Our lamentation is, that, having once lifted
those over whom it gained the mastery so high, it
should have allowed them to sink so far towards
jtheir old estate again.

* 3. Nevertheless we can say with hopeful satis-
faction that the degeneracy of the church never

308 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

wholly blotted out the primitive moral ideal or
defaced beyond recall the record of its sublime
achievements. The traditions of the early Chris-
tians have been preserved through all changes, and
their fidelity and unfaltering zeal in proclaiming
and exemplifying the principles and spirit of the
Gospel of their acknowledged Master and Lord,
imparted to their names and memory a light and
a glory which still illuminate and gladden the
world. That Gospel, though perverted, obscured,
and in many respects practically nullified, has sur-
vived all the apostasies of its professed friends, the
assaults of open enemies, and the manifold catas-
trophes that have befallen nations and races, remain-
ing the same "glad tidings of great joy to all people"
as of old, and "the power of God unto salvation. 1 '
There, upon its divinely inspired pages, stands Jesus
with his evangelists and apostles, whose pure testi-
monies and examples are the living and eternal
rebuke of all the disgraceful and lamentable impie-
ties and immoralities which have characterized a
backslidden church as well as those of the unre-
generate world. So that whenever a class of
believers shall arise, intelligently, honestly, and
uncompromisingly resolved to stand on the origi-
nal foundation of Gospel truth, to slough off all
foreign and corrupt accretions, and build according
to the primitive ideal, their work will be exceedingly
simple, well-defined, and comprehensible. Such
believers shall sometime arise and such work will
sometime be done, and be crowned with ultimate
and triumphant success.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 309

Some people philosophers, reformers, advanced
thinkers, as they claim to be imagine that Christ
and his ideals are to he outgrown, superseded, and
forgotten, in the onward march of human progress.
But that can never be unless mankind are to attain
a degree of moral excellence and spiritual growth
beyond and above perfect love of God and man,
perfect righteousness of heart and life, perfect con-
formity to divine and everlasting principles of
goodness and truth, which is alike impossible and
unthinkable. Whatever new opinions, beliefs, theo-
ries, philosophies, discoveries, of a moral nature are
to come, as come no doubt they will, men must
still put on the morality of Christ be animated
by his spirit, be possessed of his transcendent and
ever-blessed ^life. This to me is as certain and
unmistakable as it is that the sun illuminates the
material globe, and is destined to illuminate it to
the end of time.

DISCOURSE XXII.

INCREASING CORRUPTIONS OF PRIMITIVE
CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

" Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither
he that loveth not his brother." i John iii. 10.

"It is happened unto them according to the true proverb,.
The dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and, The sow that
was washed to her wallowing in the mire." 2 Peter ii. 22.

It is my purpose in the present discourse to trace
the growing corruptions of primitive Christian moral-
ity from A. D. 325 to the end of the sixth century
about 275 years. In doing this I shall only attempt
to call attention to a few important particulars.

I. Constantine, the acknowledged sovereign of
the Roman empire, having adopted the Christian
religion as his own and that of his dominion, pro-
claimed himself the head of the church as well as
of the state. While allowing ordinary theological
and ecclesiastical matters to remain where they had
been, in the hands of the provincial bishops, higher
and lower, and their synodical councils, he reserved
all extraordinary ones to himself for oversight and
adjudication. He made himself the final arbiter in
important cases of controversy, assumed supremacy
over all church officials, and claimed the right to
preside at all general ecclesiastical councils. In

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 311

his exercise of usurped authority he promoted and
degraded such of his subordinates as he pleased^
He formally decreed the abolition of the hitherto
established religion of the country, at least of all
idolatrous worship, destroyed a multitude of heathen
temples, and* sequestrated the wealth they enshrined
for the pecuniary benefit of the newly adopted faith.
He caused new houses of worship to be erected,
the splendors of which far outshone those of the
ones which had been demolished, and filled them with
images, pictures, and every conceivable embellish-
ment that could attract, astonish, and delight the
multitude. Moreover, he induced his opulent court-
iers and parasites throughout the provinces to erect
similar structures, over which he exercised the per-
petual right of patronage ; that is, the right to name
the bishop or priest who should officiate at any
time in one of those structures, without, any power
of appeal. Thus the long humble, conscientious,
faithful, and often persecuted disciples of the lowly
Jesus were virtually bought up, temporally.. and
spiritually, by their imperial proselyte and supposed
benefactor, or compelled by force of circumstances
to submit -to his dictation, while the enginery of
persecution was turned against the heathen priest-
hood and devotees.

But what sort of a Christian was this Constan-
tine, who had made himself the virtual head of the
church and the master of its fortunes and desti-
nies ? He was a military chieftain, who, early in
his public career, had served the empire during the
reign of Diocletian, and who, later, had aspired to,

312 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and at length, by his prowess and skill, had gained
the throne of the Caesars. In one of the campaigns
of the long struggle which finally secured to him
the object of his ambition he professed to have
seen in the sky above him a flaming cross bearing
the inscription in Greek, "With this you will con-
quer." So impressed was he with this vision that
he at once avowed himself to be a Christian,
ordered the crucifix to be placed on the shields
and banners of his army, and went on his conquer-
ing way; victory succeeding victory until he had
vanquished all his foes and obtained possession of
-the imperial crown, with an army at his command
of 300,000 men and a naval squadron of 29 vessels.
-Thereafter he was known as Constantine the Great,
and great he was no doubt as a warrior, a politician,
a statesman, and a monarch, He was a man of
quick perception, vast ideas, marvelous foresight,
great mental power, inflexibility of purpose, and
an iron will. But what he was as a Christian, or
indeed as to personal character, is clearly indicated,
not only by his general public life but by his pri-
vate acts among his own family relatives. He
murdered his father-in-law, his brother-in-law, his
nephew 12 years of age, his son Crispus, and his
wife Fausta ; all under false pretexts, but really to
-get them out of the way of the realization of his
ambitious and tyrannical designs. His whole char-
acter was in keeping with these bloody deeds,
becoming more and more depraved and outrageous
with his advancing age. Though avowing himself
a Christian in midlife it was not until twenty-five

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 313

years later, when near his end, that he was bap-
tized ; probably from the absurd notion, then deemed
orthodox, that this rite cleansed the subject from
all sin and rendered him meet for heaven. His
body was buried amid the grandest conceivable dis-
plays of funeral solemnity, pomp, and splendor, in
the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople.
This city he had make capital of the empire
instead of Rome, having first changed its name
from Byzantium, as it had been previously called,
in honor of himself. And the great mass of Chris-
tian confessors with lamentation, eulogy, and impos-
ing pageantry, wafted his soul to immortal glory.
What he was as the head and what they were as
the body of the Church may in view of these facts
be more easily imagined than described. A holy
and exemplary minority held fast to the simplicity
and purity of the original Gospel, but the number
was small and those composing it were compara-
tively obscure, undemonstrative, and powerless. The
morality of emperor and subject, of bishops, priests,
and people, was as unlike that of Primitive Chris-
tianity as darkness is dissimilar to light, or gall to
honey.

The successors of Constantine until the opening
of the seventh century were all nominal Christians,
with the exception of Julian, nephew of Constantine,
who openly abjured the Christian faith and re-in-
stated paganism as the religion of the empire ;
for which reason he was called "the Apostate."
They walked very closely in the footsteps of their
illustrious predecessor, magnifying and making at-

314 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

tractive the outward observances of the church by
costly ostentation and spectacular display, while
personally they were ambitious, arrogant, oppressive;
bloodthirsty, and in some instances foully sensual
and corrupt. The most notorious of the score or
more of them was Theodosius, also surnamed "the
Great," who reigned from 'A. D. 379 to 395. He
was deemed pre-eminently* pious and orthodox
With some undeniable excellences of character he
was a bitter, cruel, unrelenting bigot, a sanguinary
warrior, and a ferocious persecutor. Soon after
mounting the throne he announced his determina-
tion to exterminate the old worship, root and
branch. He issued edicts against all heathen rites
and ceremonies and instigated his Christian subjects
to open and merciless warfare with those who prac-
ticed and justified them. The devastation of mag-
nificent temples, the destruction of valuable libraries
and depositories of art, the confiscation of the prop-
erty of those who were persecuted to enrich his
treasuries and those of the church, the bloodshed
and death that ensued; all authorized by him and
done in the name of Christ, go to show how infa-
mously "great" he was in misunderstanding, pervert-
ing, and falsifying the Gospel, and in doing violence
to the plainest and holiest precepts of the Master
whom he professed to believe in and to serve.
Nor was his fanatical, arrogant, merciless, sanguin-
ary temper manifested towards the heathen alone.
All dissenting, heretical parties in the church, how-
ever sincere, upright, devout, Christlike they might
be, were no less the objects of his persecuting zeal,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 315-

and were hunted out, maltreated, pursued even
unto death, with unsparing diligence and malignity.
The followers of Arius, who rejected the doctrine
of the Trinity upon which the approving seal of
the empire had been set, were the objects of his
special animosity. Though their numbers were
large, all the churches of the East except in Jeru-
salem being under their control, he undertook their
utter extinction as a branch of the established
church. He deposed all the clergy in his domin-
ions who would not sign the Athanasian creed and
sent them into exile, imposed severe penalties upon
all heretics, and allowed no such persons to follow
any honorable and lucrative employment. Arians
deprived by imperial edict of their long occupied
houses of worship were forbidden to build new
ones, even at their own expense, under threats of
heavy punishment. During this reign blood was
for the first time shed by authority of law merely
and avowedly on account of theological opinions.
" Priscillian, a Spanish bishop, was twice banished
and finally put to death," and some of "his adher-
ents, among whom were noble women, were tor-
tured and executed," To this deplorable extent
had primitive Christian morality been debased and
vitiated in the high places of both church and state
and throughout the entire hierarchy of assumed-
to-be saints in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries
of our era.

2. If we recur to, the vices of whose incipient
development I spoke in my last discourse, we find
them waxing worse and worse becoming more

4J16 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

flagrant and impious during the period now under
review. Of pious frauds, Dr. Mosheim says : "Ru-
mors were artfully spread abroad of prodigies and
miracles to be seen in certain places, (a trick often
practiced by heathen priests), the design of which
was to draw the populace, in multitudes, to these
places, and to impose upon their credulity." " Cer-
tain tombs were falsely given out for the sepulchers
of saints and confessor ; the list of such was aug-
mented with fictitious names, and even robbers were
converted (by sheer pretence) into martyrs. Some
buried the bones of dead men in certain retired
localities and then affirmed that they were divinely
admonished by a dream that the body of some friend
of God lay there. Many, especially of the monks,
traveled through the different provinces ; and not only
sold, with the most frontless impudence, their fictitious
relicts, but also deceived the eyes of the multitude
with ludicrous combats with evil spirits or genii. A
whole volume would be requisite to, contain an enu-
meration of the various frauds which artful knaves
practiced, with success, to delude the ignorant, when
true religion was almost entirely superseded by hor-
rid superstition."

Again, " It was now a received maxim that it was
*an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when, by such
means the interests of the church might be pro-
moted. 1 " "It had been adopted for some time past
and had produced an incredible number of ridiculous
fables, fictitious prodigies, and pious frauds, to the
unspeakable detriment of that glorious cause in
which they were employed. And it must be frankly

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 317

confessed that the greatest men and most eminent
saints of this century were more or less tainted with
the infection of this corrupt principle, as will appear
evidently to such as look with an attentive eye into-
their writings and their actions." Ecclesiastical His-
tory, Fourth Century, Part II, Chap. 3.

In depicting the morals of the clergy our historian
testifies to a corresponding downward tendency. He
says: "The vices of the clergy were now carried to
the most enormous excess, and all the writers of this
century whose probity and virtue render them wor-
thy of credit, are unanimous in their accounts of the
luxury, arrogance, avarice and voluptuousness of the
sacerdotal order. The bishops, and particularly those
of the first rank, created various delegates or minis-
ters, who managed for them the affairs of their dio-
ceses ; and courts were gradually formed where these
pompous ecclesiastics gave audience and received the
homage of a cringing multitude/' " The corruption
of an order appointed to promote, by doctrine and
example, the sacred interests of piety and virtue will
appear less surprising when we consider that multi-
tudes of people were in every country admitted, with-
out examination or choice, into the body of the
clergy, the greatest part of whom had no other view
than the enjoyment of a lazy and inglorious repose.
Many of these ecclesiastics were confined to no fixed
places or assemblies, and had no employment of any
kind, but sauntered about wherever they pleased, gain-
ing their maintenance by imposing upon the ignorant
multitude, and sometimes by mean and dishonest
practices." 16. Fifth Century, Part II, Chap. 2.

318 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

So grew these enormities that our author, writing
of the condition of things a hundred years later,
says; "The arts of a rapacious priesthood were
practiced upon the ignorant devotion of the simple,
and even the remorse of the wicked was made an
instrument of increasing the ecclesiastical treasury ;
for an opinion was propagated with industry among
the people that a remission of sin was to be pur-
chased by their liberalities to the churches and
monks, and that the prayers of departed saints,
whose efficacy was victorious at the throne of God,
were to be bought by offerings presented to the
temples which were consecrated to these celestial
mediators/' "So high was the veneration paid, -at
this time, to the clergy, that their most flagitious
crimes were corrected by the slightest and gentlest
punishments ; an unhappy circumstance, which added
to their presumption and rendered them mpre daring
and audacious in iniquity." Ib. Sixth Century ', Part
II, 'Chap. 2.

And if we inquire into the prevalence of the war
spirit with its kindred vices, of whose generation
and growing ascendancy in the church mention was
made in my last discourse, we shall find the whole
period now being scanned in more or less violent
agitation, crowded with the formation and move-
ment of military organizations, campaigns, battles,
and widely extended bloodshed and slaughter of
men ; much of it all in the name of Christianity and
avowedly for the maintenance and spread of the
true faith. Emperors, princes, patriarchs, bishops,
priests, and the laity, followed by the. general rab-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. - 319

ble, engaged in this sanguinary work with the most
unscrupulous zeal whenever and wherever they had
a cherished object to gain, whether in opposition
to the heathen, to heretical parties and sects, or,
as was sometimes the case, in hostile strife with
each other. If here and there a voice was raised
against this serpent brood of inhumanities and in
re-affirmation of the principles of peace and good
will, it was silenced by imperial decree and threats
of penal vengeance or drowned by the general uproar
of the people. Even rival patriarchs and metropoli-
tan prelates made the sword th,e arbiter of their
respective claims. As a specimen of such conten-
tion, carried on, not in the pretended interest of
truth and justice or of any particular form qf doc-
trine or of ecclesiasticism, I will quote further from
my lear v ned author.

"The bishop of Rome surpassed all his Brethren
in the magnificence and splendor of the church over
which he presided ; in the riches of his revenue
and possessions ; in the number and variety of his
ministers ; in his credit with his .people ; and in his
splendid and sumptuous manner of living." "Hence
it happened that when a new pontiff was to be elefcted
by the suffrages of the presbyters and the people, the
city of Rome was generally agitated with dissen-
sions, tumults, and cabals, whose consequences were
often deplorable and fatal." ' In the year 366, " one
faction, elected Damasus to that high dignity while
the opposite party chose Ufsicinus. * * * This
.dQubJe election gave rise to a dangerous schism and
to a sort of civil war within the city of Rome, which

320 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

was carried on with the utmost barbarity and
fury, and produced the most cruel massacres and
desolation. This inhuman contest ended in a vic-
tory for Damasus, but whether his cause was
more just than that of Ursicinus is a question not
so easy to determine/' Ib. FourtfyCentury, Part II,
Chap. 2.

Similar exhibitions of this corrupt morality on a
larger or smaller scale characterized and disgraced
Christendom thenceforth. The whole church fell
into a state of chronic warfare, theological, ecclesi-
astical, proselytive, and civil, waged not infrequently
with carnal weapons resulting in bloodshed and
slaughter. Athanasianism and Arianism, in modern
terms, Trinitarianism and Unitarianism, besides vari-
ous other doxies opposed to each other, were in
bitter conflict during the three centuries under
review; sometimes with arguments and anathemas,
sometimes with judicial proceedings and penalties,
sometimes with force and arms General Council
after General Council was convened under civil and
military protection, which, however, did not always
protect, to settle points of doctrine or ecclesiastical
preferences, in honor, professedly, of the great
Redeemer and to promote the glory of God ! So the
most hateful tempers, the most bitter animosities, the
most inhuman atrocities, the most sanguinary battles,
demonstrated the rapidly increasing anti-Christianity
of nominal Christendom. And whoever protested or
refused to join the infamous masquerade was counted
a traitor to the cause of Christ and sometimes sub-
jected to martyrdom.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 321

3. Meantime the spirit of religious persecution
had become more and more deeply intrenched in
the popular mind and like a poisonous bohon upas
tree was diffusing its baleful virus far and wide in
all directions. The great mass of professing Chris*
tians was infected by it, allowing it to gain a domi-
nating influence over their hearts and lives. Pagans,
Jews, heretics of whatever name, and rival sects,
were made the victims of various forms of open
hostility proscription, malediction, excommunica-
tion, banishment, torture, death, as temptation
and opportunity occurred. On the other hand,
those thus maltreated, when the tables were turned
and the power in any locality came into their pos-
session, revenged themselves in the same inhuman
fashion and without compunction. While this was
going on in the great centers of Christian influence
and power and vicinity, Christianity itself, such as
it was, continued to make converts and gain con-
quests in foreign countries and among barbarous
peoples, sometimes by justifiable means, but quite
as often by reprehensible ones, even by fraud and
violence and the grossest forms of oppression and
outrage. In this way hordes of ignorant, degraded,
half civilized people in central Europe, northern
Africa, and western Asia, were brought to an
acknowledgment of the Christian faith and made to
swell the membership of the Christian church.
What sort of disciples of the gentle, loving, holy
Jesus these new-made saints were can be learned
from our faithful chronicler of those days, Dr.
Mosheitn.

322 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

" All that was required of these darkened nations
amounted to an oral profession of their faith in
Christ, to their abstaining from sacrifices to the
gods, and their committing to memory certain
forms of doctrine; * * * so that they retained
their primitive ferocity and savage manners, and
continued to distinguish themselves by horrid acts
of cruelty and rapine, and the practice of all kinds
of wickedness." "The converted nations retained
a great part of their former impiety, superstition,
and licentiousness"; * * * "attached to Christ by
a mere outward and nominal profession, they in
effect renounced the purity of his doctrine and the
authority of his gospel by their flagitious lives and
the superstitious and idolatrous rites and institu-
tions which they continued to observe/' 16. Sixth
Century, Part /, Chap. I.

When we consider the circumstances under which
the church maintained its existence and wrought its
work in those far off days as set forth in the quota-
tions thus far made, and the manifold causes of
deterioration and -apostasy that were in operation,
we can not be surprised at the general departure
which took place from the pure morality of the
Sermon on the Mount, and at the almost universal
prevalence of debauchery, vice, and crime among
those who bore the Christian name, making it diffi-
cult sometimes to distinguish them from the pagan
multitudes in the midst of whom their lot was cast.
Of the deplorable condition of things in this regard
at. the close of the fourth century, our author says ;
"When we cast our eyes towards the lives and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 323

morals of Christians at this time we find, as for-
merly, a mixture of good and evil ; some eminent for
their piety, others infamous for their crimes. The
number, however, of immoral and unworthy Chris-
tians began so to increase that the examples of
real piety and virtue became extremely rare. When
the major part of the bishops exhibited to their
flocks the contagious examples of arrogance, luxury*
effeminacy, animosity, and strife, with other vices
too numerous to mention ; when the inferior rulers
and doctors of the church fell into a slothful and
opprobrious negligence of the duties of their respect-
ive stations, and employed in vain wranglings and
idle disputes that zeal and attention that were due
to the culture of piety and the instruction of their
people ; and when, to complete the enormity of this
horrid detail, multitudes were drawn into the pro-
fession of Christianity, not by the power of convic-
tion and argument but by the prospect of gain and
the fear of punishment ; then it was indeed no
wonder that the church was contaminated with
shoals of profligate Christians, and that the virtu-
ous few were in a manner oppressed and over-
whelmed with the superior numbers of the wicked
and licentious." Ib. Fourth Century, Part II,
Chap. 3.

And of the moral and spiritual condition of the
church in the sixth century, he says; "The public
teachers and instructors of the people degenerated
sadly from the apostolic character. They seemed
to aim at nothing else than to sink the multitude
into the most opprobrious ignorance and superstition,

324 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

to efface in their minds all sense of the beauty and
excellence of genuine piety, and to substitute, in
the place of religious principles, a blind veneration
for the clergy, and a stupid zeal for a senseless
round of ridiculous rites and ceremonies. Ib.
Sixth Century, Part II. Chap. 3.

It hardly seems possible that a morality so pure
and exalted as that of Christ and the apostles could
become so wretchedly corrupted in almost every
respect within the brief period of a few hundred
years. But just as seemingly impossible things
have marked the whole history of mankind. And
again, it may seem incredible that those degenerate
Christians, with the teachings of Christ in their
hands, at least in the hands of their elders and
bishops, should have claimed to be the true and only
true church of Christ, and seek to suppress or
exterminate any who, in honest loyalty to the
Master, presumed to expose and rebuke their apos-
tasy. But so it has been all through the ages to
this very day. Even in our own time, if one
plainly and uncompromisingly re-affirms the pure
primitive Christian faith and practice, and exposes
the corruptions that still do much to invalidate
them in their application to individual and social
life, calling men back to the original Gospel, as I
feel it my duty to God and man to do, nine-tenths
of the nominal Christian church, Catholic, Greek,
and Protestant, to whom his animadversions and
strictures emphatically apply, have no more doubt of
their own genuine Christianity, or of his utter heter-
odoxy and fatal error, than those of fifteen hundred

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 825

years ago had, in respect to themselves and the
few faithful prophets who stood for pure Christian-
ity and testified against the prevailing degeneracy
and fanaticism. Such is the traditional, educational
blindness and self-sufficiency of multitudes of people,
good, bad, and indifferent, today. Can they ever be
overcome ? Gradually, by indomitable, persistent
effort, under the inspiration and guidance of the
immanent divine Spirit. The primitive morality of
Christ, founded on eternal principles of truth and
righteousness must sometime prevail and fill the
world with supernal light, beauty, glory. The true
test of all creeds, professions, institutions, of all
conduct and life, the same yesterday today and for-
ever, is the old one of Christ ; "By their fruits shall
ye know them."

DISCOURSE XXIII.

DEEPENING CORRUPTIONS OF PRIMITIVE
CHRISTIAN MORALITY.

"Wo unto them 1 for they have gone in the way of Cain,
and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward."
e, ii th verse.

The tide of demoralization was sweeping onward
with resistless force at the opening of the seventh
century, and as we descend into the deepening
shades of the "Dark Ages" we can expect nothing
but augmenting depravity and corruption. Nor
will our expectation be disappointed. Morality
had already become almost completely divorced
from piety, and neither of them had more than a
pretended likeness to the original Christian type.
The former was metamorphosed into a selfish, bar-
baric, unscrupulous expediency; the former into a
splendid heathenish ritualism. Pious frauds had
set the whole church agog after bogus miracles
and relics of saints ; image-worship had been sol-
emnly sanctioned by the highest ecclesiastical author-
ities ; notorious sinners procured clerical absolution
and favor by rich gifts ; patriarchs and high prel-
ates opposed and supplanted each other by craft
and violence; luxury, licentiousness, and arrogance
characterized the upper classes in church and

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 327

state gross ignorance and superstition the masses
of the people ; the rising monastic orders exhibited
numberless extravagances of asceticism and laxity,
of mendicancy and avarice, of artlessness and crafti-
ness, of fanaticism and composure," of zeal and stu-
pidity, of virtue and vice, while whatever pure
Christianity survived was proscribed or driven into
obscurity.

While the church had been rotting and becom-
ing putrid at the center, its circumference had been
expanding by fraud and violence, until it embraced
a vast multitude of barbarians, mercenaries, and
hypocrites, who were actuated much more by the
spirit of Beelzebub than that of Christ. The
stronger of these preyed on the weaker with mer-
ciless voracity, and "might made right' 1 through-
out the once colossal Roman dominion. What was
called the Western Empire, with Rome for its
capital, had been overrun and subjugated by tbe
Goths who were soon to be conquered by the
Franks and Germans all barbarians but Chris-
tian ( ? ) barbarians. The Eastern Empire, with its
capital at Constantinople, was in a state of constant
ferment, but outlasted in a decaying condition the
period I am now canvassing. The great Arabian
prophet, Mahomet, had carried fire and sword
through Western Asia and laid the foundation of
a new religion, intrinsically aggressive and warlike,
which rapidly brought a third part of Christendom
under its arbitrary sway and filled the other two-
thirds with terror and dismay. Thus internal and
external conflicts at arms, with their manifold inde-

328 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

scribable calamities, became the actual, almost normal
condition of the entire Christian world. The kind
of morality, individual and social, likely to flourish
under such conditions, within and without the
church, can be easily imagined. It may be clearly
portrayed by the presentation of a few well-authen-
ticated facts.

i. We will consider at the outset the character
and career of the reigning sovereigns of those times
and their satellites. Of professed Christian emper-
ors and kings there were some thirty between the
sixth and tenth centuries. Among the earliest of
these was Phocas, who, by a successful conspiracy
and much bloodshed, rose from the rank of centu-
rion to that of chief monarch of the East. Having
gained possession of Constantinople by corrupting
the army and bribing one of the two violent fac-
tions in the city, he massacred the fugitive emperor
and his entire family five sons being slaughtered
before their father's face prior to his own death.
The six bodies were thrown into the sea, the heads
belonging to them being exposed in the streets of
the capital to the insults or pity of the populace
till putrefaction necessitated their burial. But this
was not the end of indignity and outrage inflicted
upon the overthrown imperial household. The eld-
est son, Theodosius, who had taken refuge in Persia,
was hunted down and murdered, and not long after,
the empress, who attempted to check the usurper
in his mad career, was seized by his infuriated
minions, tortured, like the vilest of malefactors, in
order to extort a confession of her designs and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 329

accomplices, and then with her three daughters
beheaded. Those accused of loyalty to the former
regime were condemned to die as traitors without
a trial after having first suffered the most cruel
tortures tortures too revolting to be described.
Yet this monster of iniquity and cruelty was with
impious solemnities consecrated as the Lord's
anointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, who
had been assured of his orthodoxy ; and Pope Greg-
ory the Great, afterwards canonized as one of the
saints, pronounced upon the wretch one of his most
flattering benedictions. Gibbon, the distinguished
author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, thus characterizes this murderous ruler :

"The pencil of an impartial historian has deline-
ated the portrait of a monster; his diminutive and
depraved person, the closeness of his shaggy eye-
brows, his red hair, his beardless chin, and his
cheek disfigured and discolored by a formidable
scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even of arms,
he indulged in the supreme rank a more ample
privilege of lust and drunkenness, and his brutal
pleasures were either injurious to his subjects or
disgraceful to himself. His savage temper was
inflamed by passion, hardened by fear, and exasper-
ated by resistance or reproach. 11 Decline and Fall,
Vol. IV, p. 454. At length he was supplanted by
another conspirator and punished by the same
bloody violence through which he had risen to the
throne. Of some forty successors, down to the
year 1000, I find only one that shrunk from the
shedding of human blood and other crimes peculiar

330 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

to monarchs. He was conspired against by the
leaders of the army and quietly abdicated declar-
ing that not a drop of Christian blood should be
shed in his behalf. Thenceforth for 32 years his
home was a monastery far distant from the royal
palace. A few others were tolerable rulers for their
age, and the rest abominable wretches.

In western Europe the emperors and kings were
perhaps more respectable on the whole, though some
of them were moral monsters, guilty of manifold
forms of iniquity. Yet they all claimed the Chris-
tian name and were reputedly zealous devotees of
the church, observing its formalities and keeping
its feasts with scrupulous care. Charlemagne, the
most famous of them all, was sainted for what were *
deemed his personal merits and his services to the
cause of Christ. The son of Pepin, king of the
French, he rose from the princedom to which he
was born to the dignity and power of an impe-
rial Caesar. As he was among the best of the
professed Christian sovereigns we will give a brief
historical sketch of his character and career, from
which we can judge how near the others came to
the standard of excellence and worth set up in the
New Testament.

" On the festival of Christmas the last year of the
eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church
of St. Peter at Rome, and, to gratify the vanity of
the city, he exchanged the simple dress of his
country for the more showy habit of a patrician.
After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo
(the pope ), suddenly placed a precious crown on

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 331

his head, and the dome resounded with the acclama-
tions of the people, crying, ' Long life and victory
to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by
God the great and pacific emperor of the Romans/
The head and body of Charlemagne were conse-
crated by the royal unction ; after the example of
the Caesars, he was saluted and adored by the
pontiff; his coronation oath represents a promise
to maintain the faith and privileges of the church ' r
and the first fruits were paid in rich offerings to-
the shrine of the apostle. * * * Without injustice
to his fame, I may discern some blemishes in the
sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the West-
ern Empire. Of his moral virtues, chastity is not
the most conspicuous ; but the public happiness
could not be materially injured by his nine wives
or concubines, the various indulgence of meaner or
more transient amours, the mutitude of his bastards
whom he bestowed on the church. * * * I shall
scarcely be permitted to accuse the ambition of a
conqueror ; but on the day of equal retribution, the
sons of his brother, Carloman, the Merovingian
princes of Aquitaine and the four thousand five
hundred Saxons who were beheaded on the same
spot, would have something to allege against the
justice and humanity of Charlemagne." Decline and
Fall, VoL V,pp. 43-5.

Such being the character of Charlemagne the
saint, we can judge tolerably well what sort of
Christian monarchs flourished in western Christen-
dom during the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries.
It may be safely concluded, that, in general, they

332 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

practically trampled under foot every precept of
Christ as they utterly ignored his example and com-
mitted many abominable vices in his name.

2. If we now inspect the lives of the professed
ministers of religion during the same period, from
pontiff and patriarch to the humblest priest and
teacher, the picture is still darker at least, if
viewed in the light of their greater assumed sanc-
tity. For they not only attached themselves closely
to the civil rulers and shared the spoils of their
official tyranny, but sanctified governmental wicked-
ness and aped in the church the excesses and vices
of the state. Dr. Mosheim says ; " That corruption
of manners which dishonored the clergy in the
former century increased rather than diminished
in this, and discovered itself under the most odious
characters, both in the Eastern and Western prov-
inces. In the East there arose the most violent
dissensions and quarrels among the bishops and
doctors of the church, who, forgetting the duties
of their stations and the cause of Christ in which
they were engaged, threw the state into combus-
tion by their outrageous clamors and scandalous
divisions, and even went so far as to stain their
hands with the blood of their brethren who differed
from them in opinion. In the western world, Chris-
tianity was not the less disgraced by the lives of
those who pretended to be the luminaries of the
church. * * * The clergy abandoned themselves
to their passions without moderation or restraint.
* * * Those who by their holy profession were
appointed to proclaim to the world the vanity of

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 333

human grandeur and to inspire the minds of men
by their instruction and example with a noble con-
tempt of sublunary things, became themselves scan-
dalous spectacles of worldly pomp, ambition, and
splendor." EccL History, Eighth Century, Part //,
Chap. 2.

3. With such a clergy, what must be the moral-
ity of the laity and lower classes generally ? Let
the same historian answer; "It is, indeed, amaz-
ing, that, notwithstanding the shocking nature of
such vices, especially in a set of men whose pro-
fession required them to display to the world the
attractive luster of virtuous example, and notwith-
standing the perpetual troubles and complaints
which these vices occasioned, the clergy were still
thought worthy of the highest veneration, and were
honored, as a sort of deities, by the submissive
multitude. This veneration for the bishops and
priests and the influence and authority it gave them
over the people, were, indeed, carried much higher
in the west than in the eastern provinces ; and
the reasons of this difference will apear manifest
to such as consider the customs and manners that
prevailed among the barbarous nations, which were
at this time masters of Europe, before their con-
version to Christianity. All these nations during
their continuance under the darkness of paganism,
were absolutely enslaved to their priests, without
whose counsel and authority they transacted nothing
of the least importance either i& civil or military
affairs. On their conversion to Christianity they
therefore thought proper to transfer to the minis-

384 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ters of their new religion the rights and privileges
of their former priests. And the Christian bishops
in their turn, were not only ready to accept the
offers, but used all their diligence and dexterity to
secure and assert to themselves and their success-
ors the dominion and authority which the ministers
of paganism had usurped over an ignorant and brut-
ish people." It.

It is unnecessary to multiply these historic testi-
monies, as they continue to be of the same import
to the end of the ninth century. The corruption of
primitive Christian morality, as well as piety, became
utterly abhorrent till at length it reached the
-nethermost depths of depravity, the thick darkness
of an ignorant, superstitious, intolerable, earthly
inferno. If it could be boasted on the nominally
triumphant side that Pagandom had been Christian-
ized, it might be claimed on the other that Christen-
dom had been Paganized.

And now friends, what shall we say of these
things and how shall we profit by the glimpses we
have caught of the appalling decline down which
the Christian Church gradually backslid from the
lofty and pure heights of personal righteousness on
which Jesus and his first disciples stood and radi-
ated light upon the world ? Shall we keep ourselves
in willing ignorance of the facts in the case ? or
shall we study diligently the annals of the religious
past with a view of profiting by them ? Note the
condition of things in Christendom today. On the
one side stand the lineal successors and represent-
atives of these old paganized Christians, in church

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 335

and state, boasting of the sacred antiquity and even
infallibility of an ecclesiastical organization that
has for ages been wallowing in this mire of corrup-
tion, from which it is yet by no means delivered,
and solemnly conjuring us to take refuge in its
bosom as the only hope of salvation. On the other
side, and at the utmost extreme, are the assumed
apostles of progress, contemning or belittling every
form or type of Christianity, even the primitive
Christianity of the Gospels, claiming that it is of
the same nature as all others the puny seedling
of baptized paganism and that all must stand or
fall together ; that they are not worthy of the pres-
ent age and should be abandoned. Another class
there is, who make earnest protestations against
the " Scarlet Beast/' as they term the medieval
church and its lineal successor, the Roman Catho-
lic hierarchy of today, but who still hug many of
her theological, pietistic, and moral corruptions as
the original Gospel, and doom to perdition those
who conscientiously and justly reject and disown
them. Let us open our eyes to these things and
judge of them both conscientiously and intelligently.
Let us not be overawed by priestly assumption on
the one hand, nor be hallucinated and led astray
by the sophistries of an artful skepticism or the
ignis fatui of a fruitless progression ism, on the
other. Nor yet let us professedly cleave to the
pure Christianity of the New Testament and at the
same time blend with it doctrines, customs, and
practices to which Jesus himself gave no counte-
nance, doctrines, customs, and practices born of

336 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ignorance, superstition, and barbarism. Rather let
us expend reasonable effort in getting all possible
light upon the subject under discussion and then
judge concerning it in both a good conscience and
a good understanding.

When we read over or hear rehearsed the simple,
grand precepts of the great Teacher, let us ponder
them reverently, thoughtfully, and under a deep
sense of responsibility to God. Let us search for
the eternal divine principles on which they are
based, the living, holy spirit with which they are
animated, and the use, purpose, or end, to which they
are to be applied in all human relations and transac-
tions. Without this, they are of little value empty
platitudes or ineffective generalities. Professional
formalists may, parrot-like, repeat them, zealous
sentimentalists may praise them, and even unscru-
pulous pretenders may affect to reverence them;
albeit to all such they are little more than "as
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." The preacher
may cry out with impassioned voice that "Except
a man be born again" and "become as a little
child, he can in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven/' But often to what purpose? This doc-
trine was taught and nominally believed all through
the "Dark Ages" by pontiff, monarch, prelate and
noble ; by clergy and laity. But what meaning had
it to any of them? Professing to be born again
and to have entered upon a new life in Christ, they
were the same slaves of pride, lust, and blood as
before. Professing to have become as little chil-
dren, innocent, gentle, teachable, they were vain,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 337

haughty, ambitious, tyrannical. Professing to be the
followers of Jesus in all things, they persistently
and systematically repudiated his spirit, ignored his
example, and violated his most sacred and authori-
tative injunctions and commands.

Moreover, such professions and such practices
such teachings and such lives did not begin and
end in a day, or in a century, or with the "Dark
Ages." Do they not exist to a deplorable extent
in our own time ? Listen to the ordained instruc-
tor and guide of the people in many a popular
church, and to the people themselves. The minister
repeats the golden rule, and the people say, amen.
But does that rule govern them in their entire
conduct towards their fellow-creatures? They all
avow their belief in the second commandment.
But do they really love their neighbor as they love
themselves ? regard his welfare as they do their own ?
seek his happiness as they seek to be happy?
They recite together the precept, "Love your ene-
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully
use you and persecute you." But do they live by
it, as individuals, as members of society, as citizens
of the town, state, and nation ? Or do they cherish
towards these several classes the spirit of ill-will,
resentment, indignation, anger, hatred? Do they
not often seek to injure, wrong, harm them, in
body, mind, reputation, or estate; to have them
made to suffer penal retribution fines, imprison-
ment, death perhaps. Do they not in extreme
cases all unite in unloosing the dogs of war and

338 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

in sending wholesale destruction among those who
have in some way or other offended against them
or against the general welfare and happiness ?
Eloquent and laudatory discourses do men preach
upon the passages quoted, and upon all the heav-
enly precepts of humility, meekness, brotherly kind-
ness, forgiveness, but how much real practical
meaning do they find in them? Some of them
about as much and about the same kind as did
the popes, emperors, prelates, kings, nobles, and
populace, in the days of the imperial saint Charle-
magne ; some of them a great deal more, to be
sure, but alas ! how few of them enough to purge
them of "all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and
evil speaking, with all malice ? " How few enough
to disarm them of all injurious and death-dealing
force, of all penal and military compulsion and
violence, and cause them to "beat their swords
into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-
hooks" and "to learn war no more?" The great
mass still cling to the scepter and weapons of car-
nal strife and death as indispensable to human prog-
ress; aye, to Christian civilization. They rejoice
to have escaped from medieval barbarism but still
cling to its methods and practices ; they congratu-
late themselves that they were not born and doomed
to live in the " Dark Ages," but yet are quite will-
ing to linger in the gloomy, deadly shades of such
ages! Behold, then, the theoretical text and the
practical commentary !

Much the same is true in regard to worldly ambi-
tion, desire for rank and station, lust for authority

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 339

and powers . The Master's teaching upon this mat-
ter is very explicit and plain. When the mother
of Zebedee's children came with her two sons to
him, asking a high place for them in his kingdom
a wish in which they no doubt heartily concurred
he gave them a lesson of rebuke and instruction
which ought to be remembered and heeded by all
similar disciples to the end of time, "Ye know not
what ye ask/ 1 he said. "The princes of the Gen-
tiles exercise dominion over them, and they that
are great exercise authority upon them. But it
shall not be so among you. But whosoever will
be great among you, let him be your minister; and
whosoever will be chief among you, let him be
your servant. Even as the son of man came not
to be ministered unto but to minister and to give
his life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 22, 25-28.
And yet behold the scramble for positions of honor
and emolument, for office and places of authority
and power, in all grades of political and civil life,
and often even in the church; professed disciples
of the humble Jesus, "who made himself of no
reputation and took upon him the form of a ser-
vant," joining in the tumult, and vieing with each
other for some vacant place of honor or power, and
a chance to feed at the public crib. How much
.is the spirit thus manifested like the unhallowed
( and vaulting ambition of those old princes and
potentates, prelates and priests, of whom I have
spoken, although operating, it is true, on a some-
what less cruel, bloody, and inhuman plane than
their predecessors !

340 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

And then there are those other blessed precepts
of primitive Christian morality scattered through
the New Testament, against the inordinate love of
money, covetousness, and all forms of maramonism
which Christ declares to be hostile to the true ser-
vice of God. These are frequently extolled and
urged as the rightful rules of life with fulsome
rhetoric and glowing enthusiasm, yet with little
practical application and effect. The burning
thirst for gold is not allayed, the eager strife for
wealth, in which the multitudes take part, goes on,
great riches are heaped up by the more shrewd,
artful, unscrupulous few, while the many fail to a
great extent in the fierce and unbrotherly compe-
tition some, indeed, to share and enjoy a reason-
able competency, but a large proportion to struggle
on year after year in hopeless, unrelieved poverty.
And then comes the conventional exhortation to
the more successful to be generous with their
wealth, to give liberally to the church and its
institutions, in order that splendid edifices for wor-
ship may be built, an ornate ritual be kept up, and
all the accompaniments of religion be refined and
elegant, so as to attract the multitude and gain
converts to Christ ; as if such use of worldly means,
without regard to the manner in which they were
obtained, would satisfy the demands of true moral-
ity and win the favor of heaven ? Does not this,
too, seem much like the ways of the olden time,
when large contributions to the treasury of the
Lord were thought to atone for many crimes, save

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 341

the soul from purgatorial fires, and satisfy a right-
eous God ?

Who will seriously ponder these things I again
ask and be wise in regard to them ? Who will
find in them stimuli to a more faithful perform-
ance of duty ; to a closer imitation of Christ ; to
a more perfect obedience to his commands and
injunctions? And who pursuant thereto will take
part in the work of a radical reform in the respects
mentioned ; in the work of bringing back the church
to its primitive basis ; so that its Personal Right-
eousness shall practically accord with that of its
great Head and Exemplar?

DISCOURSE XXIV.

THE MORALITY OF CHRISTENDOM

DURING- THE TENTH, ELEVENTH, TWELFTH, AND
THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.

" Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiv-
ing and being deceived." 2 Tim. iii. 13.

" Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out
devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you ; depart from
me ye that work iniquity." Matt. vii. 22, 23.

The prophetic declarations embodied in these two
texts of New Testament Scripture were strikingly
fulfilled in the experience of men and nations bear-
the name of Christ during the period passed in
review in the last three discourses, extending from
the middle of the second to the end of the ninth
century. "Evil men and seducers" through all
that darkening era did "wax worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived," and multitudes of
ecclesiastics in the nominal Christian Church, of
high and low degree, together with the great mass
of professed believers in the anointed One of Naza-
reth, were going their prescribed round of cere-
monial service and observing with punctilious care
the manifold rites and ordinances of formal piety,

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 343

claiming to do "many wonderful works" as repre-
sentatives of Christ and guardians of his cause,
while steeped in iniquity and practicing the most
disgusting, abhorrent, and deplorable immoralities.
It would seem as if moral corruption and depravity
could hardly reach a lower depth than that which
widely prevailed at the opening of the tenth cen-
tury. Scarcely a single distinguishing virtue of Prim-
itive Christianity remained sacred in general practice,
and the most exalted and sublime of those virtues
were ruthlessly set at nought, trampled under foot,
or reversed by the church itself, save in the case
of a comparatively few obscure members. And
this condition of things continued through the
tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries
the period covered by the present discourse becom-
ing, if possible, more intense and malign, more
appalling and calamitous, as time advanced, with
little to alleviate the universal degradation and
distress; with "few indications of coming relief, and
with scanty ground for hope, save only in the infin-
ite mercy of God, that a better day was ever to
dawn upon the world of mankind. Anti-Christian-
ity had passed now far beyond its flowering season
and was bringing forth its hateful fruits in abound-
ing exuberance and profusion. This will appear
most clearly as we go on with a hasty review of
the period indicated, which will consist not so
much in the details of individual, social, civil, eccle-
siastical, moral, and religious life as in historical
generalizations and summaries, with appropriate com-
ments thereon.

344 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

I. And to begin with we will look once more
at the clergy in their personal and official charac-
ter, trying to follow them in their devious wander-
ings from the path of duty inculcated in the Sermon
on the Mount and in the apostolic messages to the
early churches. It was during the four hundred
years under notice that their supreme head the
Papacy, so-called made its most audacious and
tyrannical assumptions, reached the climax of its
usurped authority over church and state in Europe,
and exhibited its most execrable depravities. The
popes one after another asserted absolute and uncon-
ditioned majesty and dominion, temporal and spirit-
ual, throughout Christendom, made and unmade
kings and potentates at their pleasure, compelled
those thus raised to power, even mighty monarchs,
for trivial offences against them to crawl like rep-
tiles in the dust before them, and perform the most
servile and abject acts of penance at their footstool.
At their bidding vast armies went forth to attack
and destroy their Mohammedan and other enemies.
When neither persuasion nor pious frauds would
avail, they converted barbarians to the Christian
faith by fire and sword. They sent their suppli-
ant, blood-thirsty emissaries through all Europe to
search out, hunt down, harass, subdue, and extermi-
nate heretics of whatsoever sort that rose in protest
against their theological decrees or their immorali-
ties. They established the infamously horrible and
sanguinary inquisition, with its complex enginery
of torture and death. They opposed, fought against,
supplanted, murdered each other in their mad strife

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 345

for the pontifical scepter. And not a few of them
led lives of the most abandoned and shameless
profligacy. Of those reigning in the tenth century,
Dr. Mosheim says:

" The history of the Roman pontiffs who lived in
this century is a history of so many monsters and
not of men, and exhibits a horrible series of the
most flagitious, tremendous and complicated crimes,
as all writers, even those of the Romish communion,
unanimously confess." "To those who consider the
primitive dignity and the solemn nature of the min-
isterial character, the corruptions of the clergy must
appear deplorable beyond all expression." "Both in
the eastern and western provinces the clergy were,
for the most part, composed of a most worthless
set of men, shamefully illiterate and stupid, ignor-
ant more especially in religious matters, equally
enslaved to sensuality and superstition, and capable
of the most abominable and flagitious deeds. This
dismal degeneracy of the sacred order was, accord-
ing to the most credible accounts, principally owing
to the pretended chiefs and rulers of the universal
church, who indulged in the commission of the
most odious crimes, and abandoned themselves to
the lawless impulse of the most licentious passions
without reluctance or remorse ; who confounded, in
short, all difference between just and unjust to
satisfy their impious ambition, and whose spiritual
empire was such a diversified scene of iniquity and
violence as never was exhibited under any of those
temporal tyrants who have been the scourges of man-
kind." Eccl. Hist,, Tenth Century, Part //, Chap. 2.

846 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

When the celebrated historian comes to treat of
the eleventh century, substantially the same state-
ments are repeated; as they are in his representa-
tions of the two succeeding ones. To quote pas-
sages would be only to multiply testimonies similar
in nature and character and to darken the picture
into the gloom of moral midnight ; a gloom relieved
only by infrequent gleams of hope-reviving light:
For which reason I pass to other phases of the
subject in hand.

And now while the condition and character of
the whole order of church officials, from the pope
down to the humblest priest, was such as has been
set forth, how was it with the laity of correspond-
ing grades, from the monarch on his throne to the
meanest vassal of his authority and will ; from the
princely noble rolling in wealth and luxury to the
beggar of the street ? What, in fact, must have
been their moral and spiritual state ? Much like
that of their ecclesiastical superiors, "Like priest,
like people," Where the acknowledged shepherd
leads, the flock, as a general rule, follows. Worse
than their reputed guides they could hardly have
been, and less guilty and blameworthy, because of
their oppressed condition and lack of opportunity
for better things. With few exceptions they were
lamentably ignorant, superstitious, degraded. The
lower classes the multitude were mere slaves
to the few, to those who held the reins of power
and exercised arbitrary authority in both church
and state. The chief ground of hope and source
of relief to such was that their temporal and spir-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 34T

itual oppressors frequently quarrelled bitterly among-
themselves and contended with each other for the
spoils of empire, and alternately favored their serfs
and vassals through mutual spite and rivalry. Thus
it was that the wronged and outraged obtained 1
from time to time a portion of their inherent
rights, or, at least, a measure of protection, as their
superiors found it for their own advantage to grant
the same. When, however, no such inducement
existed, when there was no strife between opposing
forces of tyranny, and all combined for purposes of
usurpation and conquest the temporal and spirit-
ual working harmoniously for mutual aggrandize-
ment and glory then was there no check to the
arrogance of those in authority, and the people at
large were ground as grain between the upper and
nether millstones of injustice and cruelty. And
while the viceregants of Christ, bearing the insignia
of the church and claiming to represent the majesty
of heaven, were guilty of the immoralities and
crimes just ascribed to them, it may safely be con-
cluded that their subordinates in ecclesiastic affairs,,
from sovereigns and princes to the lowliest subject
or slave, would feel justified in following their exam-
ple. So it was, as the facts of history abundantly
demonstrate. The water in a spring or conduit
never rises higher than the fountain whence it
flows.

2. It is to be noted as a result of the survey
which we are prosecuting that striking illustrations
of the prevailing depravity of the period in ques-
tion, as well as of the ignorance, superstition, and

348 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

fanaticism that existed, are found in the practical
working of the monastic system which had then
risen to considerable importance in Christendom.
This system, which is founded upon the idea of
retiring from the ordinary affairs of the world and
devoting one's self in seclusion to the contempla-
tion, search after, and attainment of the things
pertaining to the religious life, had been long exist-
ent when Christianity made its appearance among
men, and it gained a place in the Christian church
at a very early date. Though practiced chiefly by
individuals for a while, it yet began to attract
attention and gain a foothold as a mode of life, a
social polity, or an institution, sometime in the
third or fourth century, spreading thenceforth with
great rapidity as time went on. Persons of great
pietistic devotion and fervor deemed it their duty
to withdraw wholly from worldly pursuits from
seeking after wealth, distinction, rank, pleasure,
even to the renunciation of the marriage relation
in some cases, and, under solemn vows, to take up
their abode in solitary places, in mountain retreats
or caves of the earth, and later in convents and
monasteries, that they might there, disencumbered
of all temporal cares and free from the temptations
and snares of ordinary life, give themselves wholly
to religious exercises, self-discipline, and communion
with God. And if, as they felt might be the case,
they should be called of divine providence to go
out thence on missions of grace and salvation to
the world at large, to do so under their own dis-
tinctive name and in a garb formally adopted as

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 349

the appropriate raiment of their order. Men thus,
devoted and consecrated were termed monks ; and 1
women, nuns.

In process of time and with the development of
the system, differing modes of thought sprung up<
among its adherents, resulting in different forms
of administration and in different schools of the
same essential monastic idea, more or less inde-
pendent of each other and yet constituting as a
whole a common brotherhood. In process of time,
too, the monastics, as they were termed, became-
numerous and influential. They were recognized
as a power in general society in church and-
state, and their aid was sought by rival parties in,
the management of both temporal and spiritual
affairs. On the other hand they became at length
conscious of their own importance and undertook
to dictate to the reigning civil and ecclesiastical,
authorities and to control the concerns and the
fortunes of the people at large. By their avowals
of poverty, humility, and simplicity, and of lofty spirit-
uality, and their outward display of these qualities,
they gained the favor of the great mass of the
population ; while their steadfast allegiance to the
church made them no less the favorites of the Papal
court and its subordinates. Thus it came to pass*
that they not only formed a sort of connecting
link or medium between the subject and ruling
classes but were enabled to exercise, in a quiet
unpretentious way, without any of the customary
ensigns or displays of authority or strength, without
crowns or coronets, battle-axes or spears, cohorts w

350 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

armies, a mighty influence in all human concerns,
social, civil, ecclesiastical, both at Rome and through-
out Christendom.

All this would have been well enough, would
Tiave been conducive to the order, virtue, welfare,
-and happiness of all classes and conditions of people
.and of the age, had these new elements of power
these monastic orders, been true to their profes-
sions; had they been the simple, unaffected, lowly,
world-renouncing, pure-hearted, devout disciples of
Christ they assumed to be. At first, they were,
no doubt, such, to a large extent and in a marked
degree. But the later devotees had departed widely
from the standard set up by their progenitors, the
founders of their system and its institutions. They
had been beguiled by the same seductive arts that
had lured other adherents of the church away from
the simplicity of the Gospel, and were now wallow-
ing in the mire of a common corruption ; and they
played their part in the drama of human life accord-
ingly. Hear what my favorite historian says of
them as they were in the eleventh century:

"All the writers of this age complain of the
ignorance, licentiousness, frauds, debaucheries, and
-enormities that dishonored the greatest part of the
monastic orders not to mention the numerous
marks of their profligacy and impiety that have come
-down t r o our own time. However astonished we
may be at such horrid irregularities among a set
of men whose destination was so sacred and whose
profession was so austere, we shall be still more
surprised to learn that this degenerate order, so far

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 351

from losing aught of their influence and credit on
account of their licentiousness, were promoted, on
the contrary, to the highest ecclesiastical dignities
and beheld their opulence and authority increasing
from day to day. Our surprise will be diminished
when we consider the gross ignorance and super-
stition, and the ^unbounded licentiousness and cor-
ruption of manners that reigned in this century
among all ranks and orders of men." Eccl. Hist.
Eleventh Century, Part //, Chap, 2.

It appears, however, that this fearful depravity
was not universal and total among these monks
and their confreres, but that reformations were
occasionally attempted by them with considerable
success, and that, when old establishments under
their rule became too rotten for hope of bettering,
new ones were founded and made subject to a
more rigid and thorough discipline ; though these
also frequently became perverted into cesspools of
depravity by worldly prosperity, ambition, aggran-
dizement, and carnal indulgence of various sort.

Of one of these efforts among the disciples of
monasticism to restore the lost estate of the order
and re-establish its primitive purity of thought and
conduct, made in the thirteenth century, our histo-
rian writes thus :

"The religious society that surpassed all the rest
in purity of manners, extent of fame, number of
privileges, and multitude of members, was that of
the Mendicants, or begging friars, whose order was
first established in this century, and who, by the
tenor .of their institution, were to remain entirely

352 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

destitute of all fixed revenues and possessions.
The present state and circumstances of the church
rendered the establishment of such an order indis-
pensably necessary. The monastic orders who wal-
lowed in opulence were by the corrupting influence
of their ample possessions lulled in a luxurious
indolence. They lost sight of all their religious
obligations, trampled upon the authority of their
superiors, suffered heresy to triumph unrestrained
and the sectaries to form various assemblies : in
short, they were incapable of promoting the true
interests of the Church, and abandoned themselves
without either shame or remorse to all sorts of
crimes." Id. Part 77, Chap 2.

These sects which rose up now and then with
loud protests against reigning abuses and corrup-
tions were really the reformers of those days, stand-
ing out bravely for a moral excellence and strictness
of life in striking contrast with what existed around
them in all departments of society. They each and
all did a good work for a time, but were often prone
to fanatical extravagances and, even with growing
popularity and influence, to reprehensible excesses,
becoming themselves in their turn "a burden not
only to the people but to the Church itself," and
needing themselves to be reformed and molded
anew after the pattern given in the New Testa-
ment. So much for the monks, their original purity,
their utility, their decadence and supersedure their
providential place in the Church universal and in
the progressive history of mankind.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 353

3. No review of the centuries brought to notice
in this discourse would be complete or reasonably
satisfactory without mention, brief though it may
be, of the Holy Wars which so emphatically dis-
tinguished them ; the Crusades, as they are called
in general history. The Mohammedans, followers
of the wonderful prophet of the seventh century
whose name they bear, were masters of nearly all
those portions of Asia and Africa in which Chris-
tianity was first preached and for several hundred
years nominally prevailed. They had obtained a
foothold in Europe and were threatening the decay-
ing Greek empire and that portion of the Church
resident within its boundaries, though held in check
by the so-called Christians of western and north-
ern Europe. But the birthplace of Christ and
Jerusalem were firm in their sacrilegious grasp, and
thousands of pilgrims to the places made sacred by
the labors and sacrifices of their Lord and his early
disciples every year, were subject to insult and out-
rage at their hands. This was a cause of increas-
ing irritation and offense, generating a demand for a
re-conquest of the Holy Land and the expulsion of
the unsanctified invaders from its territory. The
Popes took the matter in hand and the potentates
of all Christendom gave it their sanction. Under
the preaching of Peter the Hermit, a fanatical monk
who assumed championship of the movement for
the redemption of Palestine, going through Europe
urging the claims of his cause and calling for
recruits to enlist under the banner of the cross,,
for the accomplishment of the end in view, the

354 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

great majority of the people of every rank and
calling in life were roused to an intensity of feeling
amounting almost to madness Armies were mar-
shalled into service and sent beyond the Bosphorus
to engage in the conflict with the indomitable,
blood-thirsty Saracen, who, by force and arms, had
centuries before gained possession there. A suc-
cession of campaigns, attended with the vacillating
fortunes of success and failure, of victory and
defeat ; a series of gigantic wars or Crusades, eight
in number, extending through two centuries and
involving the lives of millions of men and untold
financial resources, was inaugurated and carried
forward to a final issue of discomfiture and over-
throw to the Christian cause.

The adventurers who engaged in these miscalled
holy undertakings were for the most part men with-
out principle or honor, capable and guilty of many
a form of iniquity. The first division of the army
raised by Peter the Hermit committed the most
horrible crimes in passing through Hungary and
Bulgaria, then Pagan provinces, which so incensed
the people that they rose up in arms against the
miscreants and massacred multitudes of them ; and
subsequent divisions indulging in similar outrages
met a similar fate. . During the progress of these
numerous expeditions not only were the common
soldiery gathered from the middle and lower ranks
of life guilty of acts becoming an unprincipled band
of robbers and assassins, but bishops and abbots,
priests and monks, girded with the spear and battle-
axe, acting as chaplains, commanders, or as mem-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 355

bers of the rank and file of the army, "threw off
all restraint, led the most lawless and profligate
lives, and abandoned themselves to all sorts of licen-
tiousness, committing the most flagrant and extrava-
gant excesses without reluctance or remorse." Such
was the character of those who rushed to arms for
the overthrow of the usurping and unbaptized M*us-
sleman and for the rescue from his polluted hands
the birthplace and sepulcher of their acknowledged
Lord ! And thus did they shew forth their loyalty
to him and His Gospel by utterly ignoring his
teachings and ruthlessly trampling his most sacred
precepts and principles under foot !

4. It will further illustrate my present subject
of discourse to speak of another monstrous immor-
ality of the period under review, to wit: The
assumption on the part of the priesthood of the
power of granting what was termed absolution from
sin ; that is, the power, by reason of their office,
of granting pardon for any and all trangressions of
God's law, and of securing the remission of all
penalty for wrong-doing, for such considerations as
they at their pleasure might propose and require.
Love of lucre and the necessities of war seem to
have been for a time the most weighty motives
animating the breast of prelates in the exercise of
this assumed prerogative. Thus were they enabled
to become immensely rich or to obtain supplies for
the purpose of repelling invading hosts, making
conquests over foreign foes, or gaining foreign terri-
tory. A price was fixed for each particular exercise
of this pretended power according to the turpitude

356 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of the committed sin ; the more flagrant crimes
requiring a large sum of money, and mere venial
offences a proportionally smaller one. As the people
of those days from king to beggar lived in perpet-
ual fear of an endless hell of torture and misery,
or, at least, of agonizing purgatorial fires for an
indefinite period of duration, they were each and
all easily made the prey of these pious swindlers,
who played upon their fears as a means of obtain-
ing money from them ; most persons being quite
willing to give what was demanded of them in order
to escape the flames of either place of threatened
pain and woe.

Moreover, it was not alone for immunity from
the punishment due to sins already committed that
payment could be made, but to those contem-
plated yet to be committed. And when applied
to cases of the latter sort, the purchased favors
took the name of indulgences, and these in process
of time, came to be articles of common traffic, as
they continue to be to this day in some form or
other, in certain departments of the church and in
various countries of Christendom. Thus it was
that, by the granting of absolution for past iniqui-
ties, and the sale of indulgences for future ones,
the ecclesiastics of that day secured to themselves
such munificent revenues as no heathen priesthood
ever dreamed of or hoped to acquire ; to be devoted
to purposes of personal accumulation or advance-
ment, of church extension or adornment, of hereti-
cal suppression or persecution, or of territorial
conquest and expansion, as might respectively

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 357

please them. Sometimes these favors were dis-
pensed to secure recruits to the army, and men
were induced to go forth to battle with the ene-
mies of the state or with infidels to the church
under the ostensible guaranty of exemption from
the consequences of all previous wrong-doing and
of all which they might thereafter be guilty of at the
bar of a righteous God. Could infernal ingenuity
devise a more impious and effective way of per-
petuating the reign of wickedness among men or
of preventing the coming of the divine kingdom
on the earth ? !

5. In conclusion I can but refer briefly to that
mighty engine of cruelty and torture and death
the Inquisition, which was established in the
thirteenth century by a Pope bearing the most
inappropriate name of Innocent III. Its avcfwed
object was the suppression of heresy and it had
plenty of work to do in that line though with little
effect. The corruption and depravity that had
gained so large a place in the Church had become
so outrageous and intolerable as to rouse whatever
of moral vitality was latent in it to a resolute pro-
test and to a re-assertion of the principles of Primi-
tive Christianity and of the duties enjoined therein,
whenever an opportunity of doing so occurred with
any hope of doing good, even at the risk of threat-
ened tortures and ultimate martyrdom. No doubt
some of these protestants were great errorists in
doctrine and perhaps in practice. But good, bad,
or indifferent, they were all regarded as rebels
against both civil and ecclesiastical authority and

358 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

as dangerous heretics, to be subdued or extermin-
ated. And this was undertaken with a firm, relent-
less, bloody hand ; the so-called Holy Inquisition
with its manifold horrors being invoked to secure
that end. All Europe was scoured by hersey-hunters,
who brought their victims, when found, to this inhu-
man institution, where they were put to the rack
or subjected to other tortures such as human fiends
only could invent in order to make them recant ;
refusing to do which, as was not infrequently the
case, they were put to a most cruel and agonizing
death. And all this inhumanity was practiced in
the name of that Christ who taught his followers
to live together as brethren, to do to others as
they would have others do to them, and to love
their enemies, bless those that curse them and do
good to those that despitefully use them and perse-
cute them ; who, by word and deed, by precept and
example, condemned and prohibited not only all
proscription and persecution for opinion's sake, but
all intentional injury to any human being even to
the worst of foes. How hath the cause of pure
and undefiled religion been dishonored and harmed
by such outrages on the part of its avowed dis-
ciples !

DISCOURSE XXV.

THE MORAL CONDITION OF CHRISTENDOM
DURING THE FOURTEENTH, FIFTEENTH^ AND SIX-
TEENTH CENTURIES.

"Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of
evil doers, children that are corrupters Thy princes are
rebellious and companions of thieves ; every one loveth gifts
and followeth after rewards ; they judge not the fatherless
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them."
Isa i. 4, 23.

The present discourse resumes the moral survey
of Christendom at the historical point where the
last one left it the close of the thirteenth cen-
tury and continues it through the fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries an era of still
deeply prevailing darkness, though relieved by
encouraging gleams of light, by some promise of
coming day. We have groped our way along devi-
ous paths, through perhaps the gloomiest period of
the medieval ages, and peered into some of the
lowest abysses of demoralization into which the
apostate* and degenerate church ever descended ;
but we have still horrible manifestations of vice
and cruelty, of debauchery and excess to take note
of and expose to view ; mostly, however, as legiti-
mate outgrowths or results of pre-existing depravity
and corruption rather than fresh developments of

360 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

iniquity and guilt. We have found that every dis-
tinguishing principle, precept, and peculiarity of
the Christian gospel had been either grossly
neglected, perverted, or set at defiance, not only
by the more ignorant and inconspicuous masses of
the people but by their confessed superiors in the
church as well as in the state. While this condi-
tion of things continued to a large and lamentable
extent in the three hundred years designated, there
happily appeared during this period auspicious signs
of reformation in different localities, or, at least,
of counteraction faint indications of a change for
the better, of the dawn of a new morning upon the
world. I will prelude what it becomes me to say
concerning the corruptions of Christianity that still
prevailed with a brief rehearsal of the more impor
tant of these signs of promise.

i. I begin by chronicling the fact of the revival
of learning as one of the first of them ; one that
aided greatly in dispelling the shades of ignorance
and in awakening in the minds of men* a love of
truth and liberty. Previous to the opening of the
fourteenth century schools of considerable impor-
tance had been established in some of the larger
cities of western and northern Europe ; crude indeed
but valuable both in the work they accomplished and
in preparing the way for something better in their
line which was soon to come. During the period
in review educational institutions multiplied rapidly,
several of them later on becoming renowned uni-
versities. Through their influence not only were
many young men trained in the rudiments and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 361

principles of science, literature, philosophy, art, and
morals, but a desire for knowledge was awakened
in the public mind, thought was stimulated, the
spirit of inquiry went abroad, ancient books were
sought after and read and new ones were written,
while the art of printing, invented in the fifteenth
century, gave a fresh impulse to the rising intelli-
gence of the masses of people and funished vastly
increased facilities for promoting it. Thenceforth
there was rapidly advancing light upon all impor-
tant human interests and concerns, and the myrmi-
dons of ignorance, superstition, and wickedness, of
high and low degree, were held in check or made
to recoil and slink away from their former ostenta-
tious displays of usurpation and tyrannical power.

2. With the increase of knowledge and a cor-
responding mental activity and desire for truth, to
which was added a freshly aroused moral impulse,
dissenters, protestants, reformers sprang up and
multiplied in all parts of Christendom. Heretical
sects and parties became more numerous, many of
which were made up of wild fanatics and imprac-
ticable irrational zealots of little account as moral
and regenerating forces in the world, while others
of a different type proved of immense service to the
cause of Christ and to humanity architects were
they of a new era to the world. Among the most nota-
ble and worthy of these were the Waldenses, as they
were termed, who stood for radical reform in the
church and a rehabilitation of Primitive Christianity
in the creeds and lives of men. These many heresi-
archs, and especially the more rational, reformatory,

362 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

and Christian of them the Waldenses and those
of similar character were subjected to the most
cruel persecutions from the Papal authorities and
their subordinates, hunted as they were like wild
beasts and driven from their homes, and taking
refuge in dense forests, in caves of the earth, and
in wild mountain retreats, from the violence and
fury of their blood-thirsty pursuers. Nevertheless,
they could not be silenced or exterminated. The
more they were outraged and maltreated, the more
was theif spirit diffused abroad among the nations;
the more did hostility to the assumptions of the
Papacy and to the enormities and corruptions of
the Church increase; the more did heretical dis-
senters and reformers abound. Wickliffe in England
appealed from the authority of the Pope to the
Bible, considerable portions of which he translated
into his native tongue and distributed among the
people, causing great commotion and gaining for
himself a multitude of adherents. John Huss and
Jerome of Prague rilled Bohemia with their power-
ful protests against the Romish hierarchy and sowed
broadcast the seedgrain of a larger faith and a
better life throughout central Europe, for which
they were made to suffer martyrdom at the stake.
The learned Erasmus of Rotterdam, "the morning
star of the Reformation," shed the mild beams of
a renovated Christianity along the shores and be-
yond the waters of the North Sea. And then
in due time came Martin Luther, John Calvin,
Melancthon, Zwinglius, Servetus, and their indom-
itable coagitators, taking the field in a truly holy

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS 3BS

warfare with the powers of darkness reigning at
Rome and with spiritual wickedness in all depart-
ments of the Church, thus inaugurating and car-
rying forward to a successful issue a revolution
that made the sixteenth century memorable in
both the civil and religious history of the human
race.

3. Another important cause contributing to the
same beneficent result was an open disruption in
the fourteenth century between the Papal power
and several temporal monarchs, particularly those
of France and Germany, whose jurisdictions had
previously been tamely submissive and tributary
thereto. The supreme head of the Church, Boniface
VIII, urged with insolent determination his claim
to absolute control of civil as well as ecclesiastical
affairs in all countries acknowledging allegiance to
him. This was denied most emphatically by Philip
the Fair, king of France, who resolutely maintained
his own sovereign prerogatives, and who soon
" convinced Europe that it was possible to set
bounds to the overgrown arrogance of the bishop-
of Rome, though many crowned heads had attempted
it without success." To this monarch it seemed to
have been left to fight the battle that ensued upon
the issue thus raised, not in his own behalf alone
but for the other temporal rulers who were in sym-
pathy with him. A very pointed and bitter cor-
respondence was carried on at the outset between
Boniface and Philip, and this ultimated in a sen-
tence of excommunication from the Papal chair
against the king and all his adherents. Whereupon,

364 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Philip was very angry, and, after consulting and
being assured of the support of his courtiers and
nobles, sent a secret embassy to Italy for the pur-
pose of raising a sedition there which should -result
in seizing his pontificial antagonist and bringing him
to Lyons. The project so far succeeded as to gain
possession of the person of Boniface, but before he
could be taken to France the excited populace re-
captured him, conducted him back to Rome, where
he soon after died; in consequence, it is said, of
the violent treatment he received at the hands of
his antagonists. It was a bad piece of business,
but it settled forever the question of the absolute
supremacy of His Holiness in concerns of state,
and so helped the cause of religious liberty and
the ultimate reformation of the prevailing ecclesi-
asticism of the age.

4. This wholesome resistance to papal domina-
tion was followed by another event of no less con-
sequence, of which it was perhaps a contributory
cause. I refer to a violent rivalry which ere long
sprung up between ambitious candidates for the
pontifical throne and which resulted in the election
of two or three hostile popes by different factions
of the cardinalate the schism thus created weak-
ening to a very marked extent the hitherto exer-
cised authority and power of the papacy and
hastening the advent of a better era to the church
and world. Of this matter Mosheim says: "This
dissension was fomented with such dreadful success
and arose to such a shameful height that for fifty
years the church had two or three different heads

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 365

at the same time, 'each of the contending popes
forming plots and thundering anathemas against
their competitors. The distress and calamity of
those times are beyond all power of description ;
for not to insist upon the perpetual contentions
and wars between the factions of the several popes,
by which multitudes lost their fortunes and their
lives, all sense of religion was extinguished in most
places and profligacy rose to a scandalous excess.
The clergy, while they vehemently contended which
of the inimical popes ought to be deemed the
true successor of Christ, were so excessively cor-
rupt as to be no longer studious to keep up even
an appearance of religion or decency; and, in con-
sequence of all this, many plain well meaning peo-
ple were overwhelmed with doubt and plunged into
the deepest mental distress. Nevertheless these
abuses were by their consequences greatly condu-
cive both to the civil and religious interests of
mankind ; for by these dissensions the Papal power
received an incurable wound, and kings and princes
who had formerly been the slaves of the lordly
pontiffs now became their judges and masters, and
many of the least stupid among the people had the
courage to disregard and despise the popes on
account of their vicious disputes about dominion,
to commit their salvation to God alone, and to
admit as a maxim that the prosperity of the church
might be maintained and the interests of religion
secured and promoted without a visible head
crowned with a spiritual supremacy/* Eccl Hist.
Century XIV, Part 77, Chap. 2. So it may be that

366 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

next to truth and righteousness a rotten ripeness
of error and wickedness may open the eyes of
honest people and impel them to demand and pro-
ceed to inaugurate a radical reformation.

5. In the same way too, it may be remarked,
the fearful persecutions with which all classes of
dissentients and reformers were visited, including
the horrors of the Inquisition, had a tendency to
further the same desirable end. Thousands and
tens of thousands untold myriads of people inno-
cent of crime, were plundered, driven from their
homes, made the prey of mercenary and blood-
thirsty marauders clothed with the robes of office,
wounded, imprisoned, slaughtered outright, or made
to suffer a lingering death by indescribable tortures,
for the sole reason that they would not confess the
established faith, acknowledge the papal suprem-
acy, and bow submissive to ursurped power
because they differed from their superiors in office
upon religious themes, dared to think for them-
selves in loyalty to truth and duty, and to speak
the word that conscience required them to speak.
Such atrocities at length aroused the slumbering
moral sense of intelligent, highminded people, caus-
ing a reaction which served to check the violence
and madness of their perpetrators, and to produce a
most salutary and humanizing effect upon the pub-
lic mind; thus tending to purify the theology, the
morality, and the life of Christendom. So it was
then, as in many other instances under the over-
ruling providence of God, that the blood of the
martyrs became the seed of the church of an

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 367

improved and greatly transformed church, if not
of a wholly regenerate and Christian one.

But what was the actual moral condition of the
nominal Christian world during the centuries now
in review ? Alas, that we are obliged to confess
it to have been, as already intimated, sadly low and
corrupt. The favorable occurrences to which I
have referred were but incidents in the history of
the period, ripples in the tide of affairs, flashes of
light in the midst of generally prevailing darkness,
fore-gleams of a day the dawn of which was still
in the future awaiting the progress of time and the
workings of Him in whose hands are all human
fortunes and destinies. This is what Mosheim says
of this matter: "The most eminent writers of this
{ the fifteenth ) century unanimously lament the mis-
erable condition to which the Christian church was
reduced by the corruption of its ministers and which
seemed to portend nothing less than its total ruin,
if Providence should not interfere, by extraordinary
means for its deliverance and preservation. The
vices that reigned among the Roman pontiffs and
indeed among all ecclesiastical orders were so fla-
grant that the complaints of these good men did
not appear at all exaggerated or their apprehen-
sions ill-founded ; nor had any of the corrupt advo-
cates of the clergy the courage to call them to
account for the sharpness of their censures and of
their complaints. The rulers of the church, who
lived in luxurious indolence and in the infamous
practice of all kinds of vice, were even obliged to
hear with a placid countenance and even to com-

368 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

mend these bold censors who declaimed against the
degeneracy of the church, declared that there was
scarcely anything sound either in its head or in its
members, and demanded the aid of the secular arm
and the destroying sword to lop off the parts that were
infected with this grievous and deplorable contagion,"
Bed. Hist. Fifteenth Century, Part 77, Chap. 2.

The distinguished and trustworthy D'Aubigne,
author of the History of the Reformation, testifies
essentially to the same effect, as follows : " Doubt-
less the corruption was not universal ; justice
requires that this should not be forgotten. The
Reformation elicited many shining instances of
piety, righteousness and strength of mind." "If
in these our days any one were to collect the
immoralities and degrading vices that are commit-
ted in any single country, such a mass of corrup-
tion would doubtless be enough to shock every
mind. But the evil at the period we speak of bore
a character and universality that it has not borne
art any subsequent date, and, above all, the abomina-
tion stood in the holy places which it has not been
permitted to do since the Reformation." ''The
proclamation and sale of indulgences powerfully
stimulate an ignorant people to immorality." "The
venders of indulgences were naturally tempted to
further the sale of their merchandize by presenting
them to the people under the most attractive and
seducing aspect." '-All that the multitude saw in
them was a permission to sin ; and the sellers were
in no haste to remove an impression so favorable
to the sale."

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 369

"The priests were the first who felt the effects
of this corrupting influence. Desirous to exalt
themselves they had sunk themselves lower. In-
fatuated men ! They aimed to rob God of a ray
of his glory and to place it on their own brow ;
but their attempt had failed and they had received
only a leaven of corruption from the power of evil.
The annals of the age swarm with scandals. In
many places the people were well pleased that the
priest should have a woman in keeping, in order
that their wives might be safe from his seductions.
What scenes of humiliation were witnessed in the
house of the pastor. The wretched man supported
the mother and her children with the tithe and the
offering ; his conscience was troubled ; he blushed
in the presence of his people, of his servants, and
before God. The mother fearing to corne to want
when the priest should die provided against it be-
forehand and robbed the house. Her character was
gone ; her children were a living accusation of hen
Treated on all sides with contempt, they plunged
into brawls and debaucheries. Such was the family
of the priest. These horrid scenes were a kind of
instruction the people were ready enough to follow."

"The higher orders of the hierarchy were equally
corrupt. Dignitaries of the Church preferred the
tumult of the camp to the service of the altar. To
be able, lance in hand, to compel his neighbors to
do him homage, was one of the most conspicuous
qualifications of a bishop. Baldwin, archbishop of
Treves, was constantly at war with his neighbors
and vassals ; razing their castles, building fortresses

370 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

of his own, and thinking only how to enlarge his
territory. A certain bishop of Eichstadt, when
dispensing justice, wore under his habit a coat of
mail and held in his hand a long sword. He used
to say he did not fear five Bavarians provided they
would attack him in the open field. Everywhere
the bishops were engaged in constant war with the
towns; the citizens demanding freedom and the
bishops requiring implicit obedience. If the latter
triumphed they punished the revolters by sacrificing
numerous victims to their vengeance ; but the flame
of insurrection broke out again at the very moment
when it was thought to be extinguished."

"And what a spectacle was presented by the
Pontifical throne in the generation immediately
preceding the Reformation ! Rome, it must be
acknowledged, has seldom been witness to so much
infamy. Roderigo Borgia, after living in illicit
intercourse with a Roman lady, had continued a
similar connection with one of her daughters, by
name Rosa Vanozza, by whom he had five children.
He was living at Rome with Vanozza and other
abandoned women, and, as cardinal and archbishop,
visiting the churches and hospitals, when the death
of Innocbnt VIII created a vacancy in the pontifi-
cal chair. He succeeded in obtaining it by bribing
each of the cardinals at a stipulated price. Four
mules laden with silver were publicly driven into
the palace of Sforza, the most influential of the
cardinals. Borgia became Pope under the name of
Alexander VI, and rejoiced in the attainment of
the pinnacle of pleasures/'.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 371

"The very day of his coronation he created his son
Caesar, a ferocious and dissolute youth, archbishop
of Valencia and bishop of Pampeluna. He next
preceded to celebrate in the Vatican the nuptials
of his daughter, Lucrezia, by festivities, at which
his mistress, Julia Bella, was present, and which
were enlivened by farces and indecent songs.
'Most of the ecclesiastics/ says an historian, 'had
their mistresses, and all the convents of the capital
were houses of ifl-fame/ Caesar Borgia espoused
the cause of the Guelphs, and when by their assist-
ance he had annihilated the power of the Ghibe
lines he turned upon the Guelphs and crushed
them in their turn. But he would allow none to
share in the spoils of his atrocities."

"Alexander had a favorite named Peroto whose
preferment offended the young duke. ( Caesar hav-
ing been honored with the duchy of Valentinois
by Louis XII, king of France, as a condition upon
which a divorce from his wife was granted him by
the Pope.) Caesar rushed upon Peroto who sought
refuge under the Papal mantle, clasping the Pontiff
in his arms. Caesar stabbed him and the blood of
the victim spirted into the Pontiff's face. 'The
Pope/ adds a contemporary and a witness of these
atrocities, 'loves the duke, his son, and lives in
great fear of him/ "

"Caesar was one of the handsomest as he was
one of the most, powerful men of his age. Six
wild bulls fell beneath his hand in single combat.
Nightly assassinations took place in the streets of
Rome. Poison often destroyed those whom the

372 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

dagger could not reach. Every one feared to move
or breathe least he should be the next victim. Cae-
sar Borgia was the hero of crime. The spot on
earth where all iniquity met and overflowed was
the Pontiff's seat. When man has given himself
over to the power of evil, the higher his preten-
sions before God the lower he is seen to sink in
the depths of hell. The dissolute entertainments
given by the Pope, his son Caesar, and his daugh-
ter Lucrezia, were such as can neither be described
nor thought of. The most impure groves of ancient
worship saw not the like." At length "the Pope,
in order to rid himself of a wealthy cardinal, had
prepared poison in a small box of sweetmeats which
was to be placed upon the table after a sumptuous
feast. The cardinal receiving a hint of the design
gained over the attendant and the poisoned box
was placed before Alexander. He ate of it and
perished. The whole city came together and could
harcfly satiate themselves with the sight of this dead
viper. Such was the man who filled the pontifical
throne at the commencement of the age of the
Reformation." HISTORY OF THE GREAT REFORMA-
TION, the four volumes complete in one. //. 24-27.
We have now reached the climax of medieval
iniquity and corruption. There were no lower
depths apparently of moral degradation and sbame-
lessness into which men and nations could plunge ;
into which the nominal Church of Christ could
sink. For all this existed in Christendom it was
found in the high as well as in the low places qf
the religious world in the metropolis of that great

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 373

empire which gloried in the name of the crucified;
which claimed allegiance to the divine man of the
New Testament, and professed to be the especial
guardian and representative of his cause and king-
dom on the earth ! And yet his commanding
morality was utterly reversed and his holiest injunc-
tions were lost in the cesspools of the foulest crimi-
nality. No wonder that a reaction came. No wonder
that outraged and dishonored human nature was
moved to protest and revolt ; no wonder that the
moral sense of the better portion of the people
cried out for a reform ; no wonder that God raised
up and sent forth new prophets of truth and right-
eousness, to call men to repentance and a better
life ; " to lift up their voices like a trumpet and
show his people their trangressions and the house
of Jacob their sins."

And so the great Protestant Reformation, by a
mighty uprising of the human soul against unparal-
leled wickedness and shame, by the demand of the
awakened conscience of men for greater fidelity to
Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit work-
ing in and through human instrumentality, was
inaugurated and launched upon the tide of advanc-
ing time. Foregleams of it had appeared in Eng-
land under Wickliffe in 1360, and more vividly under
Huss, Jerome, and others in the following century.
But it did not arise in its strength until Luther
and Melancthon in Germany, Zuinglius in Switzer-
land, Calvin in France, and others in other coun-
tries appeared during the sixteenth century and
made it a power of redemption in the world. Of

374 % PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

its results and the extent to which it restored
Christianity to its primitive purity and simplicity
and brought the church back to the Master, I will
speak in subsequent discourses.

DISCOURSE XXVI.

THE AVERAGE MORALITY OF CHRISTENDOM

IN THE 8EVENTEETH AND EIGHTEENTH

CENTURIES.

" And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away
thy dross, and take away all thy tin. And I will restore thy
judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning:
Afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the
faithful city." Isa. i 25, 26.

The proph_etic-announ cement of this text has not
yet been_^ulfilled. The happy consummation it
heralds is still far in the future, though the cor-
rective process which shall ultimately achieve it
began with what is termed in history The Reforma-
tion. The sixteenth century saw that great move-
ment successfully inaugurated and started on its
way to final victory. It was regarded with varying
emotions and received diversified treatment from
the thoughtful, religious public of that day. Its
enemies hated, contemned, and even ridiculed it,
while its friends admired, revered, panegyrized it ;
and so it has been to the present moment. The
truth concerning it lies between the two estimates
thus indicated and expressed. It was not altogether
worthy of approval and commendation, nor did it
deserve wholesale and undiscriminating reprobation.
It had in it great good and great promise of good

376 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

to the cause of truth and to humanity ; it also had
serious defects and shortcomings. All this seems
natural and probable when we reflect upon the
intellectual, moral, social, and political state of
Europe at the time the agitation which produced
that remarkable upheaval broke out, and remember
that the elements entering into it were for the
most part gross, crude, egotistic, and turbulent
even, as well as religiously zealous and passionate,
without much truly Christian circumspection and
scrupulosity. This leaves room for instances of
exceptional moral and spiritual excellence in the
case of individuals and small select classes or sects,
as they might be termed. But the influence of
these well-balanced, truly regenerate minds and
hearts was but as a whisper in the midst of a
tornado. The great leaders of the age, ecclesiasti-
cal, political, philosophical, military, were "bulls of
Bashan" or "rams of Nabaioth," The conflicts
that arose between them were wars of the giants,
the issues of which were nearly all determined in
the last resort either by the sword or by the pen
of diplomacy dipped in human gore. But what
were the principal elements entering into and con-
currently producing the mighty movement known
as The Reformation ?

i. A large number of honest, conscientious,
earnest, men and women, utterly disgusted and
aggrieved at the gross immorality of the Roman
hierarchy in all grades of rank and station. Who-
ever exposed and denounced that immorality openly
and uncompromisingly was hailed by all such as a

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 377

God-sent messenger of redemption. The same class
of persons were ready to applaud and echo all bold
anathemas against the Papistic superstitions concern-
ing purgatory, relic-worship, masses for the dead,
absolution of sin, indulgences, etc. This element
produced a most salutary effect upon the Roman
communion, compelling it to adopt so much of
external reform as should stop the mouths of
accusers and insure greater public respect. Its
moral standing was thus greatly improved, and it
has ever since been growing more and more cir-
cumspect, giving the larger Protestant sects decreas-
ing ground or occasion for boasting over it.

2. Theological dogmatists, able, ambitious, com-
bative, and indomitable, such as Luther, Calvin,
Knox, and many like-spirited co-adjutors, constituted
a powerful element in promoting the Reformation.
These dogmatists were undoubtedly conscientious,
had a profound horror of the Papal usurpations, super-
stitions, and immoralities, and heroically assailed
what they deemed false and wicked. But they have
left on record too many proofs of their own popish
spirit towards all dissenters from their own author-
ity, however sincere and upright, to command our
highest admiration. They insisted on the suprem-
acy of the Scriptures over all ecclesiastical decrees
and traditions, but they must be allowed to inter-
pret those Scriptures, and woe to him who called
their interpretations in question. They stood man-
fully for the right of private judgment, as against
Pope, prelate, and council, but deemed it rash,
impudent, and blameworthy, for others to question

378 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

or reject their decisions. They abhorred the Rom-
ish Inquisition, but set up petty ones of their own.
They deprecated persecution for opinion's sake, but
deemed it proper to suppress heresy against the
the dogmas they themselves avowed, not always
by mild and harmless means. They detested the
Papal reliance upon secular agencies to maintain-
decrees issued professedly in the interest of public,
order, yet they married their Protestantism to the
civil and military authority, and trusted to its arm
of violence and bloodshed for protection to them-
selves and their church. All this was natural con-
sidering the times, their education, and environing
circumstances. They did their work, all things con-
sidered, quite as well as could have been expected.
But their encomiasts claim more for their wisdom
and virtue than justice warrants or I can accord.

3. King Henry VIII of England played an
important part in this momentous drama. At the
.opening of the Reformation, he, as a loyal Papist,
wrote against Luther in defence of the dominant
ecclesiasticism ; for which the Pope conferred on
him and his successors the title of "Defender of the
Faith." But he was a man of inordinate self-will,
sensuality, and ambition, as he was of pitiless cru-
elty. He was six times married, putting away one
wife after another, either by divorce or more vio-
lent and murderous methods, to gratify his fancy,
his lust, or his vanity. When the Pope refused to
sanction the separation from his first wife, Catharine
of Aragon, for no fault of hers, he renounced alle-
giance to the Romish potentate, declared England

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 37&

to be a Protestant country, and made himself the
head of the national church' pope of England,
in fact. Though he was himself an unprincipled
tyrant, yet his break with Rome, no doubt, fur-
nished many conscientious, noble reformers among
his subjects an opportunity to do a great and
blessed work for God and humanity, and bring in
a better day to the Anglican communion and to
all classes of people. Base and unworthy of com-
mendation and eulogy as he was, he must yet be
recognized as a factor, under divine providence,
in producing the change in human history and in
the Christian church wrought by the sixteenth-
century revolution.

4. Kingcraft was another element or factor of
the problem under notice. Like other crafts of a
like nature it was subtle, artful, argus-eyed for its
own advantage ; successful by shrewdness and
intrigue to preserve and, if possible, increase power.
It was jealous of rivals, resisted the aspiration of
dependents, and missed no opportunity to humiliate
old enemies. Europe was divided into numerous
sovereignties and princedoms, having their respect-
ive rulers, who vied with each other for supremacy,,
maintained their special prerogatives, and frequently
profited by each others follies and misfortunes. They
were ready to use religion, though caring little for it,,
to promote their own interests and secure some
ambitious end. In the general issue between
Romanism and Protestantism they were each and
all ready to favor whichever side they could make
subservient to their own purpose, and so helped

380 ' PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

to keep alive and intensify the agitation which con-
tributed so largely to 'the success of the movement
which had in it much of promise to the church
and world.

5. But back of and underneath these more out-
ward activities, these essentially worldly auxiliaries
to the cause of reform, there was undoubtedly a
profound and noble moral and spiritual purpose
employed, giving character to the movement and
clothing it with invincible strength a true love
of religious liberty, of righteousness, of progress,
coupled with and inspired by an unwavering faith
in God and in the verities of the eternal life. This
fact should receive recognition and full credit ;
for without it, the agitation would have spent itself
in vain ; the Reformation would have died away in
emptiness and imbecility. It prospered, it went on
conquering and to conquer, because God was in it ;
because men inspired of the Holy Spirit, speaking
and acting from a deep sense of personal respon-
sibility and in harmony with the laws of divine
order, were its promoters, its champions, its masters.
But this element, though so important, so essential
indeed, may be overestimated has been over-
estimated by enthusiastic partisan laudators of
the work done, being regarded as the chief if not
the only agency by which it was accomplished.
But I am persuaded that it did not play so vital
-a part as its panegyrists would have us believe.
A mixture of motive prompted and animated the
movement; good and evil, disinterestedness and
self-seeking ambition, devotion to God and worldly

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 381

interest were strangely intermingled in the evolu-
tionary processes out of whose seething turbulence
and convulsions the final beneficent results came.

And now let us consider briefly the average moral
status of Christendom during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. It has been partially indicated
and illustrated in what I have already said but
requires more specific and definite elucidation.
Undoubtedly it was better than for hundreds of
years before. The signs of promise which had
previously appeared in the sky of time, as noted
in my last discourse, were by no means illusory
and vain. A marked gain in certain directions over
formerly existing conditions had been made and
changes for the better in private and public life,
in church and state, were slowly but surely going
on as time passed by. But much of this was super-
ficial and formal rather than profound and vital ; and
there was still a wide departure in all departments
of society from the primitive Christian standard of
virtue and piety a largely prevailing disregard of
the perfect law of love to God and man.

We must make a distinction between what may
be termed external, conventional morality and the
pure, radical, essential morality of the Christ, as
I have outlined it. The foul, gross licentiousness,
which before the Reformation seemed to send up
to heaven its putrid exhalations from the highest
as well as lowest places of both church and state
throughout the length and breadth of Christendom,
had been met by the voice of stern rebuke, arid
was either partially abated by common consent as.

382 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

an intolerable nuisance or driven from the public
gaze into secret places and haunts of clandestine
practice. The several departments of the nominal
-church, Romish, Greek, and Protestant, assumed
the appearance of sanctity in this and other respects,
and thenceforth, under various salutary admonitions
and chastenings, continually improved in the graces
of the Christian life. So much may be granted
without forgetting or extenuating the numerous
profligacies and iniquities which here and there,
more openly or secretly, disgraced the Christian
profession. For we must go below the surface in
order to clearly understand the actual moral status
of the age of which we speak. There were certain
fundamental characteristics of a moral and spiritual
nature distinguishing it, that were naturally inher-
ited by both Romanists and Protestants from pre-
ceding centuries, of which it becomes us in this
investigation to take particular notice.

i. A devoted attachment by both parties to the
union of church and state. With the honorable
exception of a few persecuted persons or sects the
entire nominal church stuck tenaciously to this
fatal idolatry. The idea that religion could thrive
except under the protection and in the fostering
care of secular governments, if ever dreamed of,
was almost universally scouted as impracticable.
Hence all religious parties and classes, with the
exceptions alluded to, formed the closest possible
alliance with such governments for both offensive
and defensive purposes. This involved a virtual
confession of moral and spiritual weakness on their

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 383

part, a practical reliance upon the scepter, purse,
and sword as a dernier resort, and a partizanship
with that type of religion which worldly govern-
ments represented a sort of refined brutishness.
So the Christianity of the church was demoralized
the Protestant Church like the Roman before it
and its Christianity became really a baptized bar-
barism. Its theology was barbaric; Its piety was
barbaric; and its morality partook of the same
nature ; it was stern, imperious, despotic, arrogant,
vindictive.

2. The adoption of the war system as the final
arbiter in human affairs was another characteristic
of the centuries in review, and an inheritance from
the heathenish past. With the exception of the
Mennonites, Quakers, and a few others, Protestants
and Catholics alike adopted the utterly unchristian
principle that " might makes right " in extreme cases,
and made carnal weapons their final dependence
instead of those spiritual ones "which are mighty
through God to the pulling down of the strong-
holds " of Satan and sin. The essential morality
of the war system reverses the most distinguishing
precepts of the gospel, and sanctifies the grossest
violations of the law of perfect love whenever seem-
ing necessity or convenience dictates. No wonder
that Christendom, vitiated by the spirit which this
systems engenders, notwithstanding all the boasts
of the friends of the Reformation, was full of con-
tention; violence, wrath, destructiveness, inhumanity.

3, In harmony with this adoption of the war sys-
tem as -a* means of accomplishment, and growing

384 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

out of it in part, was the widely prevailing domi-
nation of brute force, penal vengeance, retaliatory
legislation, vindictive punishments, and the various
forms of persecution in behalf of religion, which
still continued to vex all social and civil relations
and keep back the coming of the kingdom of God
in the world. All the more popular branches or
divisions of the church were more or less intoxi-
cated with this bloody wine of violence and revenge ;
it animated their lives and characters and controlled
their action, not alone in their personal and civic
relations, but in ecclesiastical and religious con-
cerns. It stimulated persecution for opinion's sake
in the breasts of Protestant as well as in those of
Catholic believers. It is curious and instructive to
see how ready escaped victims of malice and per-
secution are to employ them against dissenters
from their dicta when they get into power. Thus
the Puritans of New England made haste in their
wilderness home not only to whip and hang alleged
wizards and witches but to ostracise and exter-
minate innocent but independent Baptists and Quak-
ers. This was but a slight echo of the disabilities
and cruelties perpetrated in the old world by reli-
gionists in power upon their dissenting co-religion-
ists. Men palliate these atrocities sometimes by
attributiug them to "the spirit of the age." The
allegation is true. But it would be truer to attri-
bute them to the spirit of that corrupt and bar-
baric Christianity which was the orthodoxy of that
age. With such noti.ons of God, Christ, salvation,
atonement, and retribution as then reigned in most

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 385

religious circles, persecution was both natural and
meritorious. It was Godlike. "If God consigns
heretics to endless torture in the world to come,"
said Queen Mary, " why should not I, as a servant
of God, administer like punishment to them, so far
as I can, in this world?" And the reasoning was
as good for Protestants as for Catholics, and they
acted by it Why should they possess, the power
of authority and punishment and not use it to
maintain the true religion ; to put down heresy,
infidelity, and agnosticism?

So in civil affairs. What is civil government for,
if not to compel the wayward and wicked to behave ;
to repress crime by the strong arm ; to subject the
guilty to penal vengeance even unto death ; and thus
maintain the dignity of the law, and the divinity of
the magistracy! The just doctrine that civil gov-
ernment in its relation to evil doers should be con-
fined to the salutary restraint of those that were
dangerous, and to the kindly elevation and reform"
of all classes of them by moral and religious agen-
cies, now just beginning to be apprehended by
humane men and women and to influence legislation
and jurisprudence, was scarcely dreamed of in those
days. The Christianity of the churches had not
risen to that level and we must estimate and judge
it accordingly.

4. A glance at the Jesuits and their theories and
conduct is needful to a just apprehension of the
morality of the centuries in review ; such power
had they over the fortunes of Christendom. In
the early days of the Reformation arose Ignatius

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Loyola, a most remarkable man and an intense devotee
of the Church of Rome. That church needed such
a man to revive its waning power and put new life
into its devitalized energies. And this he did;
chiefly by founding the famous order of the Jesuits,
the most intelligent, enterprising, politic, indomita-
ble, successful society that ever served the Papal
or any other hierarchy. These sectarists grew
rapidly in numbers and in influence, becoming at
length, despite all opposition, innumerable obstacles,
and even the antagonism at times of the Pope
himself, the very brain, the nervous tissue, the
ruling soul of the Catholic branch of the church;
"the power behind the throne mightier than the
throne." What was the morality of this command-
ing order? It may be summed up in the maxim,
"The end sanctifies the means"; that is, a good
object makes all means of success, however repre-
hensible in themselves, justifiable. The Jesuits did
'not originate this pernicious doctrine, for men had
announced and acted upon it before. But they
formally adopted and magnified it, making it the
basis of their organic life. They did not monopo-
lize it, for it has been made the rule of conduct
by many successful leaders in church and state,
and by sectarians and partizans in all ages ; our
own not exceptecl But before all others the Jesuits
have proved themselves masters of it.

Starting with the assumption that the Roman
was the only true church and that with the Pope
at its head it is absolutely infallible, it followed that
to obey it, maintain it, promote its prosperity, was

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 387

their supreme duty ; and this was to be clone by
whatsoever means, good, bad, or indifferent, they
could command. The object in view made them
all holy and justifiable. On this principle and to
this end they labored labored diligently and suc-
cessfully. They employed every agency in their
power to accomplish their purpose as servants of
the Romish Church; cunning, deceit, perjury, trea-
son, murder, war, all could be made subservient
to their will and used as occasion or opportunity
might allow. The grossest offences were pardona-
ble if they contributed to the end in view, and suc-
cessful iniquity was a virtue. On these lines they
wrought wrought with a persistency ad a will
only surpassed by their consummate skill. They
became all things to all men ; in king's houses and
the hovels of the peasantry ; in institutions of learn-
ing and among the ignorant multitude ; with friends
and with enemies ; in every land and country to
which they had access. They were ubiquitous in
their activities and adepts at every art that could
serve their cause. In every sphere of religion,
politics, and social life, they plied, in the name of
Christ, their special trade. They had no moral
principle at heart, but were governed by a crafty
expediency that never failed them in any stress to
which they were brought. Maintaining an outward
appearance of respectability and of professional
virtue and piety, they were the secret plotters and
abettors of innumerable deeds of darkness and
shame, of bitter persecutions and sanguinary bat-
tles. Their interior and basic morality in fine was

388 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

the most anti-Christian that ever vitiated human
character or displayed itself on the arena of human
history. And yet it dominated the Roman Church,
entered more or less into the practice of Protes-
tantdom, and exerted a widely extended sway in
all the complex ranks and circles of society.

But while the moral status of Christendom was
on the average what I have represented still far
helow that of the New Testament in many marked
respects odious and deplorable, it is to be remem-
bered that the eternal divine providence did not
leave it without a powerful countercheck and cor-
rective in the wonderful intellectual development
which was all the while going on throughout the
civilized world. This was in a large measure inde-
pendent of the prevailing religious activity, though
in no wise hostile to it. It antedated the Reforma-
tion, pervaded it, outgrew it to a large extent,
becoming at length its sharp-eyed censor, challeng-
ing all forms of religious assumption on its part,
as well as on the part of the Catholic hierarchy,
and bringing all claims, theories, dogmas, of a
religious nature, to the test of enlightened reason
and a sound judgment. Science, literature, philoso-
phy, independent thought, free inquiry, controver-
sial discussion, engaged the public mind and received
constantly increasing consideration. Much of all
this, to be sure, was crude, wild, erratic, superficial,
and inconclusive, but it was frank, courageous,
often audacious and defiant towards religion, which
vainly attempted to overawe it and terrify it into
deferential modesty. As in later days a conflict

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 389

arose and was carried on vigorously between the
religious forces of the age and the intellectual
between ecclesiastical assumption and free thought.
Religion was characterized by falsities, superstitions,
absurdities, and incongruities, which were an offence
to the enlightened understanding on the one hand,
while on the other the intellectual department of
life became conceited, egotistical, self-deific ; not
infrequently scornful and arrogant towards all forms
of faith and piety, counting them all worthy only
of execration, There could be no affinity between
the two; only warfare when they came in contact
with each other. And this warfare was necessary
in the nature of things to purge away the dross
and excrescences of both parties engaged in it. And
this was done to some extent, especially on the
side of religion. Not that the intellect was itself
blameless and exemplary; not that it had the virtue
or the wisdom to establish pure Christianity among
men ; not that it was free from many of the vices
it exposed to public gaze and denounced ; but
because it was the natural, God-appointed critic of
all falsehood and pretension the arbiter between
truth and error, fact and fiction, in all departments
of human activity and responsibility. Before its
judgment seat religious superstition, assumption,
bigotry, and tyranny could be justly arraigned,
condemned, made hateful in the sight of all fair-
minded men, and religion itself be made to correct
itself, in some measure, of its most offensive and
reprehensible characteristics.

390 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

The distinctive features of the disagreeable but on
the whole salutary conflict thus inaugurated were
brought to notice most clearly in the literary, social,
political, and religious commotions and upheavals
of the latter half of the eighteenth century. New
sects sprung up in the church under bold polemic
leaders ; new political theories were promulgated in
civil society, producing revolutionary movements
that reversed in some cases the currents of history,
as in the United States and France ; liberty became
the popular watchword in both civic and ecclesias-
tic affairs, and a multitude of panaceas for human
ills were devised and proclaimed far and wide
among men. A new ardor of philanthropy and
humanitarianism was evoked, while skepticism and
nothingarianism rose to greater prominence than
ever before, and multitudes, under one or another
sanction or pretext, broke away from the exactions
and restraints of the church altogether. The gen-
eral tendency of all this was to weaken the union
of church and state, make persecution and pro-
scription for opinion's sake more unpopular and
assume milder forms, and give the liberal, progres-
sive spirit in all human concerns wider range and
a larger empire. The tide thus put in motion has
continued to increase in volume and in power ever
since and will continue to roll on, no doubt, till
everything in nominal Christianity hostile to the
primitive Gospel shall have been eliminated and
cast as rubbish to the void till religion as the
supreme concern of humanity shall be conformed to
the dictates of pure reason, and reason baptized with

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 391

the spirit of the Nazarene, shall be in harmony with
pure religion, and both as counterparts and helpers
of each other shall co-operate with assurance of ulti-
mate success for the redemption of humanity, the
triumph of divine truth, and the establishment of
the kingdom of God on the earth. And may we
all be fellow-laborers together to the same great
and blissful consummation.

DISCOURSE XXVII.

TEE PREVAILING- MORALITY OF CHRISTENDOM
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

l " Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked: I counsel thee to
buy of me gold tried in the fire that^ thou mayst be rich
and white raiment that thou mayst be clothed, and that the
shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes
with eye-salve that thou mayst see. As many as I love, I
rebuke and chasten ; Be zealous therefore and repent."
Rev. in. 17-19.

The moral and spiritual advance and attainment
of the nineteenth century are highly extolled by
sanguine progressives and equally disparaged by a
few extreme conservatives. There can be no doubt
of very great improvement over past centuries in the
intellectual realm of life and in whatever pertains
to the outward, physical circumstances and condi-
tion of the masses of mankind. This is obvious
in the exact sciences, the practical arts, financial
resources; in the comforts and luxuries that may
be enjoyed; in modes of travel and national inter-
communication ; in political ideas and governmental
policies ; in education and its multiplied institutions
and methods; in literature and aesthetic accom-
plishments; and generally in all the more external

PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY. 393

features and elements of what is termed civilization.
Corresponding improvement may be seen in the
modifications that have taken place in the religious
world the subsidence of the dogmatic spirit, the
abandonment or toning down of old creeds and
confessions, and the more catholic and kindly atti-
tude of differing sects and parties towards each
other. The harsher theological doctrines, the bitterer
ecclesiastical warfares, the more rigid exactions of
formal piety have been softened most perceptibly
but by no means wholly abandoned. All these
things are tokens of progress ; good as far as they
go and worthy of note and commendation.

And in respect to the prevailing morality, with
which we are more immediately concerned, careful
observation shows that it has become in its external
aspects more decorous, kindly, hospitable; that in
the particular phase of it which relates to the
humanitary side of life, and which" expresses itself
in institutions and works of benevolence and charity,
and in fraternal, sympathetic feelings towards all
classes and conditions of people, of whatsoever
rank, color, or nationality, there is great change
for the better over preceding centuries. And yet
it is to be noted that much of what is deemed
refinement, benignity, charitableness, is a super-
ficial matter mere good nature, constitutional amia-
bility, quiescent complacency ; having no deep root
in the moral sense and possessing no essential value
or commanding influence as an element or force o
character; and that the more active spirit of phi-
lanthropy and good will to all men is limited to

394 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

a comparatively small portion of the population,
though, without doubt, it magnetizes more or less
multitudes of others and raises the average moral
status of the community at large and of the world
as a whole to a higher level. There can be no
question but that progress is the law and condition
of humanity on the earth, nor that ample evidences
of it are manifest in the present day and genera-
tion, as in those gone by.

At the same time it would be untruthfulness to
the facts of the case an act of moral folly and
blindness not to declare openly and unqualifiedly
that there is much in modern life in what is
termed civilization that is vicious, base, corrupt,
most reprehensible. And this is true not simply
of ignorant, degraded heathendom but of the most
advanced, enlightened, professedly Christian lands
and peoples. There is still wide divorce between
the general morality of Christendom even and that
of the unperverted Gospel of Christ ; and still is
there occasion for the reproof, admonition, and
exhortation so impressively embodied in the pas-
sage from the utterances of the Seer of Patmos
taken for a text. This will appear from a few
demonstrative considerations to which I wish to
call special attention.

I. The prevalent morality of the nominal Chris-
tian world is in a large degree indefinite, elastic,
vacillating, time-serving, conventional. It is not a
morality of principle, having a basis in the laws of
eternal righteousness, and imposing upon men inde-
feasible and unescapable obligations to duty and

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 395-

fidelity in all the conduct and in every relation of
life. It lacks nerve, fiber, strength, persistency; the
heroic, kingly element. It is characterized by vague
generalities, and glittering sophisms, and sentimental
platitudes, and easy-going virtues of various sort.
It rests on temporary expediency, on speculative
utility, on respectable and refined selfishness. It
is much given to compromise, to diplomacy, to-
shrewd calculation and artful management. It mag-
nifies the sublime, positive, stringent precepts of
the Master it professedly follows, through the
pulpit, through ethical orators and authors, through
general literature and the public press, but is alas
often ready to modify them, qualify them, accom-
modate them to the pride, selfishness, ambition, and
revengeful purposes of men, and to the sectarian
and partizan designs of religious zealots and politi-
cal managers, or to ignore them altogether in the
varied affairs of life.

Take for instance a few of the most positive and
obligatory of those precepts those that most dis-
tinguish Christianity from all other religions and
reflect how little they enter into the character and
dominate the conduct of men; how often they are
stigmatized and derided even as visionary, fanciful,
Utopian, impracticable; as suited to some other
world, or far-off millennial age, but not to the world
or age in which our present lot is cast. " He that
is greatest among you shall be your servant." "Who-
soever humbleth himself as a little child, the same
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." " Blessed
are the meek." "Blessed are the merciful." "Be-

396 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

ware of covetousness." "Ye cannot serve God and
mammon." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-
self." "Whatsoever ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye even so to them." "Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good unto
them that hate you, and pray for them that despite-
fully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be
the children of your Father who is in heaven."
" Put up thy sword into its place, for all that take
the sword shall perish by the sword." "Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me." "The son of
man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to
save them." "If ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father shall also forgive you." "Why
call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that
I say?" "Whosoever doth not bear his cross and
come after me cannot be my disciple."

The meaning of these and other precepts of simi-
lar nature and spirit is obvious and unmistakable.
If there were the least chance for doubt, it all
would be made clear by the life and example of
their author. And if his nominal Church did but
observe and illustrate them, it would indeed be
"the salt of the earth" and "the light of 'the world,"
and mankind would be hastened forward rapidly
unto the day of their redemption. But unfortu
nately its leaders solemnly repeat these transcend-
ent sayings and then proceed to treat them as if (
they were only vague and glittering generalities, to
explain away their evident meaning as their author
intended it and as his immediate disciples and early
apostles understood it, to accommodate them to the

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 39T

selfish ambitions of men, to the marnmonism of the
age, to the popular tastes and fashions, to the exist-
ing unfraternal relations of human society, to the
manipulations and intrigues of political life, to the
assumptions and unchristian policies of civil govern-
ment, to the demoralizing conventionalities and
respectabilities of existing civilization. And in this-
perversion and abuse of the primitive Gospel of
Christ, all parties and sects in the church are
co-ordinate actors and fellow-helpers, with a few
notable and honorable exceptions. And so by this
adulterating and compromising course the church
gains more rich and sumptous members to its sup-
port, more unscrupulous devotees, more rulers of
this world, more military chieftains, more respecta-
bility among the multitude, but at the same time
a corresponding loss of power to uplift and save
men, to regenerate human society and bring in the
divine kingdom. It can have splendid sanctuaries,
costly choirs, rituals, and other appendages of wor-
ship, multiform and attractive instrumentalities for
converting the world, which, alas, if converted,
would be in essential respects the same selfish,
proud, mammon-serving, war-making, blood-shedding
world as before the average genuine morality of
it raised scarcely an iota above its present level,,
scarcely one degree nearer the pure morality of
Primitive Christianity.

2. It is instructive as it is striking to note that
the morality of nominal Christendom outside of
what may be termed ecclesiastical exemplariness is.
not only much the same in all divisions of the

398 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

church, Catholic and Protestant, (with the multi-
tudinous subdivisions of the latter), but is little if
any higher than that of the great company of the
unchurched. By ecclesiastical exemplariness (a
designation of my own devising) I mean that
sort of religious deportment which each denomina-
tion or sect exacts of its members in order to be
"in good and regular standing." Much of this
exists in external pietism, ceremonial observance,
conformity to established customs, and is of the
nature of disciplinary drill service, which must be
decently regarded in order not to lose caste and
be on terms of good fellowship. Thus Sabbath-
keeping, attendance upon public worship, participa-
tion in the ordinances, in the forms and attitudes
of devotion, paying tribute for the support of
denominational activities, the avoidance of prac-
tices deemed improper or scandalous these things
in the average church of our day constitute what
I call ecclesiastical exemplariness. Now much of
this external and ceremonial service, though counted
oftentimes for righteousness, however valuable in
its way as helpful to a better life, is no part of
character; is not of the nature of actual morality,
strictly so called, and has no spiritual value what-
ever in itself considered. It may be a means of
promoting pure morality if sincerely and conscien-
tiously used to that end. Otherwise, it may be
but a dry and innutritious husk, or, like the drill
of an army, a disciplinary exercise essential to the
efficiency of the organization exacting it; it may
be but a mask of pretended virtue and piety a

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS.

snare and a cheat to the soul. Thus one may
observe all holy sacraments and go through all the
exercises and motions required by any given eccle-
siastical order, and yet be thoroughly worldly and
selfish and even brutal in spirit and in conduct ;
covetous and extortionate, morose, haughty, and
tyrannical, heartless, cruel, and vindictive, given to
sharp practices, deceits, and unjust transactions
with his fellow men. I therefore leave mere eccle-
siastical exemplariness for what it may be really
worth as determined by its results in improving
human character and uplifting human life ; assert-
ing simply that, aside from this, the solid, well
grounded, trustworthy, abiding morality of Chris-
tendom is much the same in all divisions and sub-
divisions of the nominal church and in no marked
degree higher than than that of the outside world.
Why should it be ? For, as before stated, it is
gauged on every side by the same standards that
determine the ethical code of current civilization
and is co-ordinated with that worldly expediency and
calculating policy which play such a controlling
part in the great drama of social and civil life, in
all communities, states, and nations, the wide world
over. The standing policy of the churcb as a
whole, though we find a few rare exceptions, seems
to be to keep abreast of the morality of the estab-
lished civil order as represented in its legislation
and jurisprudence, but not to outrun it to any
noticeable extent. This was illustrated in the his-
tory of those great reforms which abolished the
infamous slave-trade, chattel slavery itself, and serf-

4UU PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

dom in the old world, and the two former in our
own country. So long as the laws of the land and
executive and judicial authorities based upon them
sanctioned and upheld those great abominations,
agitations for their overthrow were commenced
and carried forward by philanthropic parties either
wholly outside the church or independent of eccle-
siastical organizations. But no sooner had these
parties so informed the public mind and aroused
the public conscience that the political mechanism
began to be affected thereby, and that state action
began to take place, than the great ecclesiastical
bodies awoke from their drowsiness, girt themselves
about with weapons of warfare, entered the field
of conflict and shared with the noble company of
original reformers the honors of the final victory.
Some of those bodies were so ignorant of the facts
of the case or so blinded by the smoke of battle,
or so warped in moral judgment by prejudice and
sectarian conceit, that they thought themselves the
only or the chief combatants on the field and that
to them chiefly if not wholly was the triumph due.
And this bnngs me to another point in this inves-
tigation not to be overlooked.

3. I wish to call attention to the virtual union
which still exists between church and state, or the
relation of the morality of the present century to
the civil government of the several nations of the
earth. This formerly existing organic union of
the ecclesiastical and political powers of different
countries has been greatly modified and in some
instances entirely dissolved by the augmenting force

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 401

of rational inquiry and an' intelligent understanding
joined to the increasing demand for civil and reli-
gious liberty among the foremost peoples of the
earth. The profession and boast in our own land
is that we have made an entire separation of the
two and placed religion and the morality associated
with it on a purely voluntary basis of support.
And yet nearly all our religious societies and insti-
tutions are incorporated under governmental author-
ity, thus securing the privilege of calling to their aid,
if deemed needful or desirable, the arm of the law
and even of the penal and military force lying
back of it, for the purpose of collecting their
revenues, resisting unjust exactions, and carrying
into effect such measures as they may adopt for
the promotion of the objects they desire to accom-
plish. It is curious to see how large a proportion
of our religious leaders, special reformers, and phi-
lanthropists in general, even those of high profes-
sion, beginning whatever work of renewal, uplifting,
and purification they undertake with rational and
persuasive appeals to the understandings, the con-
sciences, and all the higher sentiments of human
nature, sooner or latei fall into the notion that
very considerable reliance must be placed upon
political methods and legislative enactments for the
consummation of their plans and projects, and pro-
ceed to act accordingly. They sometimes assume
the role of advisers, censors, and directors of the
civil administration of affairs, laboring to secure
such laws, such decisions of the courts, such use
of the scepter of state and of executive power as

402 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.

they judge necessary to remove the evil they
denounce and to establish the righteousness they
would build up among men And if they do not
succeed to their minds in this attitude of counsel-
lor and admonitor, they enter actively into the
arena of political wrangling and strife, trying their
hand at forming or manipulating parties, at con-
trolling conventions and building platforms, at the
various devices of shrewdness and chicanery which
are so much the stock in trade of politicians and
aspirants for place and power in these days, in
order that they may the more effectually secure
the ends they have in view ; in order that they
may make the state their partner and their backer
in their various undertakings. They do not seem
to suspect that the principle upon which they act
is essentially the same as that which underlies all
forms of church and state union ; a principle which
makes the church practically subservient to the state ;
involving, as it does, a confession of inability on the
part of the church to carry on its own work in
its own way to a finally successful issue, and of
the necessity of relying upon outside aid the
strong arm of civil authority and governmental
power to accomplish the objects for the promotion
of which it claims to have been divinely established
and ordained. This is abandoning the means and
methods which Jesus universally employed in his
time to advance his cause and kingdom ; it is sur-
rendering spiritual weapons in the warfare with the
world the flesh and the devil for carnal ones ; it
is putting the morality which the church claims to

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 403

represent largely into the keeping of political man-
agers, partisan leaders, ambitious office-seekers, who
naturally and inevitably pervert and corrupt it. In
this way the average morality of the nineteenth
century is simply the morality of such unscrupulous
and often notoriously vicious manipulators, and of
necessity is far below that of the perfect Nazarene.
4. We will now glance at the morality of Chris-
tendom in the present age as represented in reli-
gious persecution, in vindictive penalties for crime,
and in the continued war system of the world.
The first of these has been so cowered and crippled
by opposing influences by the growing intelli-
gence of mankind and the triumph of free and
untrammeled thought, and so softened by the increas-
ing humanity and catholicity which enter into all
departments of human life, that it ventures to raise
its cobra head only here and there for a moment
in the more benighted portions of the earth.
Nevertheless, its venomous spirit still lives and.
would repeat in some directions its old cruelties, if
it dared. But it is generally content to appear in
milder forms than in other days; in the form of
excommunication, proscription, denunciation, some-
times of misrepresentation, calumny, and abuse.
Bigotry is not wholly a thing of the past, and claims
to the exclusive favor of God and privileges of
heaven are still sometimes heard. The Catholic
Church still regards the Protestant as a deplorable
if not damnable heresiarch, and from time to time
presents overtures for its return to its own bosom
that it may find there safety, peace, and blessed-

401 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITr

ness. The older Protestant denominations, though
becoming more tolerant and courteous towards the
more liberal ones, are hardly ready to grant them
the Christian name and allow that they have an
equal chance with themselves to an inheritance with
the sanctified on high. As a matter of fact the
time is not yet very near at hand when the Saviour's
prayer, "that they all maybe one; as thou Father
art in me and I in thee that they may be one in
us," will be fully answered.

As to unmerciful, vindictive, and brutal punish-
ments, I am happy to say that they have- been
much decreased in number and much lessened in
barbarity since the century began. Indeed, in
most civilized lands they have been almost wholly
divested of deliberate and needless torture. Public
sentiment in general leans towards mercy in the
punishment of criminals, sometimes perhaps towards
laxity, if they be fashionable, wealthy, influential
ones. Much more attention is paid of late years
to the prevention of vice and crime than formerly,
and to the reformation of those guilty of offences
against the public welfare, and more interest is
taken in discharged convicts and those desirous of
reform, to have them placed under salutary influ-
ences and helped to a better life. Nevertheless,
there yet remains in the community a vast amount
of vindictiveness towards the law-breaking classes,
and the guillotine, the gallows, and the electro-
cutor's chair still drip with the blood of those
slaughtered under the statute by man's inhumanity
to man. The great majority of people have not

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 405

yet learned that Satan cannot cast out Satan ; that
evil can be overcome only by good. Large num-
bers go armed with deadly weapons, prepared to
act upon the principle of "an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth, wounding for wounding and
blow for blow," though Christ's commands posi-
tively forbid doing so ; and lynch-law brutalities
and race quarrels and assassinations are not infre-
quent in divers sections of our own land.

War, as a means of redressing grievances, settling
difficulties, and dealing with enemies generally, has
become less frequent, is better regulated, and, in
certain respects, is not so virulent and savage as
formerly. But it has not been renounced or out-
grown. On the contrary, the custom never since
time began had such widely extended and lavish
support as now. And Christendom, to its dis-
honor, shame, and condemnation, be it said, has
become more warlike than all other portions of the
earth. The great battles of the century have been
fought by Christian peoples and mostly with Chris-
tian peoples. Never since the great apostasy against
the primitive peace doctrine of Jesus in the third
century have Christian nations exhibited such devo-
tion to military force and armed intervention or
resistance as today. At this moment they have
more brain, muscle, science, destructive enginery,
pecuniary capital, invested in the war system than
ever before. And the wars. of this century have
been among the most gigantic ones of history.
Moreover, the greatest apologists for and defenders
of war have been of recent birth. Even professed

406 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

advocates of peace sometimes plead that the way
to peace is through war! A little more righteous
bloodshed and then ; yes, then, the millennium !

And the nominal church spreads holy hands over
this murderous system and gives it sanctity and
prestige and further lease of life. Its chaplains
lend it their prayers, invoke God's blessing on
either and both sides in every death-dealing con-
flict, offer up thanksgivings over battles won, and
fast and lament in times of defeat, imploring the
Father of mercies to reverse the fortunes of the
sanguinary field and give the victory to the other
side. So does the barbarism of war continue, and
so is the morality of the nineteenth century char-
acterized and degraded by this "grossest outrage
on the principles of Christianity."

5. And if we were to consider for a moment
in a general way the actual condition of society
even in the most favored lands we should have an
object lesson throwing a flood of light upon the
subject in hand, and showing how far removed the
morality of today is from that of the pure Gospel
of our Lord. Behold the ignorance, the unequality,
the selfishness, the intemperance, the sensuality,
and shame that exist in all our large cities, and to
a lamentable extent, throughout 'our own and other
lands; behold the appalling contrasts in modern
civilization of wealth and poverty, of luxury and
want, of comfort and discomfort, of contentment
and unrest, of happiness and misery; behold the
allurements of gilded and fascinating evils, the
temptations to vice and crime, the dens of inquity,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 407

the vestibules of perdition, that so plentifully
abound ; behold the antagonisms that prevail
bitter and unrelenting oftentimes between differ-
ent classes of the population between the rich
and poor, between capital and labor, between em*
ployer and employed ; behold the cunning crafti-
ness, the chicanery and wire-pulling of common
politics, the scramble for office, the traffic in votes,
and the intrigues of legislation ; behold the jeal-
ousy and distrust, the spirit of animosity and
wrath, the unreason and conceit that characterize
the nations of the earth, making enemies of those
who "else like kindred drops would mingle into
one " ; behold how the strong tyrannize over the
weak and defenceless, how legislators enact injus-
tice into law, how politicians shelter bribery and
corruption, how nations provide for and prosecute
the work of human slaughter regardless of the
suffering and distress occasioned thereby; behold
all these things and consider how opposed they
are to the pure, loving, fraternal teachings of the
Master, and how defective and blameworthy is the
morality which makes such things possible com-
pared with that of Primitive Christianity how
much it needs to be elevated and improved before
it can be said in any large and truthful way that
"God's kingdom has come" and that "His will is
done on earth as it is in heaven."

It might be asked if I have no credit to give
to the multiform activities of church life, or to the
numerous benevolent, humane, reformatory socie-
ties outside, most of which have arisen during this

408 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

century and are designed to relieve and bless the
suffering and sorrowing classes. Yes, much credit,
for they deserve it. But not all that is sometimes
claimed for them. No one of them nor all together
represent or propose to promote a symmetrical,
complete, Christlike righteousness. They are all
and each of them more or less partial and defect-
ive more or less vitiated by a compromising
spirit, and so not worthy of unqualified commen-
dation. Were the world to become like them it
would still be far from the kingdom of God. I
therefore look for something higher, nobler, more
perfect, more Christlike, to come. God speed its
advent.

418 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

morality of the Gospel and the ultimate triumph
of Primitive Christianity among men. Perhaps so,
but I do not see it. I see that all these religious
bodies, in co-operation with other beneficent agen-
cies alluded to, have important uses in the general
system of things, and, notwithstanding serious short-
comings and even trangressions against truth and
righteousness, are made under divine wisdom to
subserve most desirable ends. But viewed as direct
and all-sufficient means to the supreme object in
view, I deem them radically impotent and ineffectual.

In the first place they are each and all rendered
insensible of the necessity of any such profound,
vital transformation as this entire discussion in-
volves, by the spirit of undoubting self-satisfaction
with which they are possessed ; and this not only
paralyzes effort but utterly disqualifies them for
efficient service in its behalf. They already have,
in their own esteem, all essential Gospel truth, and
why should they trouble themselves with any call
or cause which implies that they have not; they
already maintain and represent, in their own opinion,
all the piety and virtue that is at present practi-
cable, and why should they devote time, energy,
effort, to attain anything different ? Why attempt
impossibilities ? Surely enough, why should they ?
Granting their premises, based upon their conceit,
and their conclusion is inevitable. So that on
that ground, nothing definite, positive, effectual is
to be hoped from them.

And then, again, the whole theological system
upon which the vast majority of these religious

410 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

fested itself in the world for sixteen hundred years,
I have established, at least to my own satisfaction,
the following definitely stated positions, to wit:
I. That the primitive Christian piety and morality
were pre-eminently higher and more perfect than
any type or portraiture of personal righteousness
embodying those two fundamental elements ever
otherwise commended to mankind ; containing the
good of others without their defects or evils, and
transcending them in completeness and crowning
excellences. 2. That the perfect personal right-
eousness taught, enjoined, and exemplified by Jesus
Christ became gradually and increasingly corrupted,
ignored, and trampled under foot by the nominal
church from the second or third' century downward
to the time of the so-called Protestant Reformation
under Martin Luther and his distinguished coadju-
tors. 3. That while a powerful reaction then took
place in the direction of a return to the original
teachings of the New Testament Scriptures, and
while substantial and highly commendable progress
has been achieved in the same direction since that
memorable uprising, especially during the present
century, there is still most notable and irreconcila-
ble divergence in both church and state, theoreti-
cally and practically, from some of the most
essential and distinctive precepts and principles of
the Prophet of Nazareth. 4. That the only hope
of ultimate regeneration, holiness, and happiness
for mankind on the earth, individually, socially, and
universally, lies in casting off these corruptions and
perversions, returning to the primitive Gospel stand-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 411

ard of truth and righteousness, and reconstructing
the church on the moral and spiritual basis -the
Rock of ages which constituted its foundation
when it first started out on its mission of redemp-
tion to the world.

II. Applicatory Reflections, i. Assuming that I
have borne witness to important truths, and borne
it faithfully, the first reflection is involved in the
inquiry, Who hath believed my report ? or, Who
cares for it and will profit thereby ? Is anything
to be expected, at present, from the leading spirits*
the rulers of the nominal church, but indifference
or perhaps contempt for such a witness and for
such testimonies ? Little more. Those who occupy
high places in Zion have no special regard or love
for him who discloses their malfeasance in office,
whether through ignorance or treachery, and brings
them into condemnation. It is essentially the same
with such today as it was with the high priests
and scribe^ of the time of Christ. Pope, cardinals,
archbishops, and prelates of every degree in the
Romish and Greek communions ; Episcopal, Luth-
eran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Unitarian,.
Universalist, and denominational leaders generally
in Protestantdom alike wise in their own conceits,
and well-enough-to-do in their easy positions are
quite willing to be ignorant of such testimonies as
I publish abroad, or, if casually informed of them,
are likely to thrust them aside with vituperation
or a sneer. And the great mass of their reverenr
tial and deferential subordinates the laity are
expected, as they are inclined, to follow in their wake.

412 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

"Why, then," it may be asked, "bring these
batkslidings, perversions, abuses to light, denounc-
ing them and testifying against them ? " Because
the Holy Spirit of truth impels me in all loyalty
to do so. Because there is a remnant in the earth
who have not bowed the knee to the Baal of an
emasculated and disorted Christianity, who will be
encouraged to hear, consider, resolve, and act aright,
and whose numbers will be multiplied by such tes-
timonies and appeals. Because woes are coming
on them that are at reprehensible ease in Zion ;
they are to be deprived of unhallowed power and
advantage; they are to be criticised, exposed, and
brought to confusion by the growing intelligence
of men; they are ultimately to be winnowed as
with a fan and purged as with fire ; the heavens
are to be shaken over their heads and the earth
made to quake beneath their feet, till their errors
and falsities became utterly hateful to them and are
disowned and cast off forever. In those days will
such counsels as mine be precious to them as "the
fine gold of Ophir," and help them to gain some
sure refuge from the impending doom. Therefore
I cannot refrain from a duty so imperative and yet
now so thankless. There is a future for me and
my cause.

2. Another reflection is that I have no more favor-
able reception to expect for my testimonies from
self-styled liberals outside the church rationalists,
transcendentalists, scientists, spiritists, and skeptics
generally than is accorded them by professing
Christians themselves, of high and low degree.

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 41-3

Why not ? Because my essential Gospel is to them
foolishness ; they belittle if they do not despise its
very foundation, Jesus Christ being the chief cor-
ner stone. The Prophet of Galilee is no divine
teacher to them, and his declarations and require-
ments have no conclusive authority. They are
supremely conscious of their own sufficiency and
feel the need of no such help as he has to offer
for their instruction, guidance, comfort, salvation,
peace, and joy. At the same time they have no
essentially higher, nobler, more perfect ethical sys-
tem to propose for the acceptance and governance
of mankind than the degenerate church furnishes
a linsey-woolsey moral philosophy and a sword-sus-
tained, blood-shedding civilization. Besides, it is
- not the genius of these several classes of persons
to build up the perfect thought and life in individ-
uals or in society and among the nations, but to
overthrow and destroy the imperfect; to criticise,
find fault with, and bring into disrepute, doctrines,
customs, institutions, which they have neither the
wisdom nor virtue to supersede with" better ones.
So for the present I hope for nothing more from
all such than to see their partial, destructive, inade-
quate efforts overruled by divine providence for the
gradual elimination from human affairs of ecclesi-
astical and religious assumption, bigotry, miscon-
ception, perversity, and corruption. When they have
fulfilled this mission, undesignedly and unconsciously
on their part, and find how unsatisfactory such a use
of time, talent, energy is, they will then, perchance,
like starved prodigals, seek after that true bread of

414 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

Heaven which Christ evermore giveth to those who
hunger and thirst for it ; even that righteousness
which he taught and exemplified and which is for
the healing of the nations and the redemption of
the world. I therefore cherish no vain expectations
of good from this quarter, but sow, while my day
lasts, the seed of the kingdom and wait unto the
fulness of times for the surely coming harvest.

3. Another reflection which weighs on my mind
-is in the form of an impression an inspiration, as
it were, from the unseen world, that sometime in
"the not far distant future, a radical reconstruction
of the Christian church must be commenced on
"the basis of the original one as the Apostles founded
it a reconstruction which shall separate it entirely
from all existing ecclesiastical and political organi-
jzations, and so relieve it of all demoralizing and
blameworthy compromise with whatever is anti-
Christian or un-Christian in their structure, polity,
or adminstration. This work of establishing the
church anew on its original foundations cannot be
inaugurated without suitable material for the super-
structure. The number of those entering into this
work need not be large, but each one of the num-
ber must be an intelligent, thoroughly determined,
and consecrated convert to the principles of pure,
practical Christianity, and as thoroughly imbued
with its spirit of perfect love to God and man ;
and must be willing and ready, at whatever sacri-
fice, to stand by the undertaking through good
report and ill report till the consummation be
achieved. Each one participating in the enterprise

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 415

must understand what it is in its fundamental and
vital characteristics, as contrasted with a contami-
nated and false Christianity and with an unchris-
tianized civilization. Ignorance, confusion, and moral
faithlessness will not serve the end in view but
rather imperil it. Its co-workers must each and all
be willing to acknowledge its distinctive principles
of theology, piety, and morality; not from selfish
motives or social constraint ; not because enjoined
and required ; but from full, free, hearty conviction
and a conscience void* of offence. All must be
united in the bonds of a true fellowship of the
spirit, so as to act together with one accord in
whatever is calculated to advance the common cause,
and must hold their union above all things sacred
and indissoluble. Their church and what it repre-
sents of truth, of righteousness, of honor, of fidel-
ity to God and man, must always take precedence
of any other human interest or institution that
comes into competition with it; must not be made
subservient or secondary to any association or
movement that would thrive at its expense. Neither
extreme individualism, nor personal antagonism, nor
any pretended religious, moral, philanthropic, or
social specialty, must be allowed to weaken the
bonds that join the members to each other or
impair their efficiency as fellow-laborers together
with God for human uplifting and sanctification.
Otherwise, the whole thing will prove a sham and
a failure. It were better to postpone such a radi-
cal reconstructive undertaking a thousand years
than attempt it with incoherent materials on a

416 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

foundation of sand. Such a church would never be
a detriment to existing civil government, nor its
submissive slave, nor a time-serving sycophant fawn-
ing at its feet, but a self-regulating, self-supporting,
self-sacrificing antetype and fore-runner of a true
Christian civilization a veritable kingdom of God
on earth, as its great Founder intended undoubtedly
that his church should be.

4. One other reflection comes to my mind; and
that is the necessity of avoiding the mistake of
trusting too much to fragmentary, special moral
reform societies or movements, having as an object
some one particular evil to overcome and put away
or some one good cause to promote and make
triumphant. They are but partial in their scope,
at the best, and often superficial in their purpose,
having no deep, radical, comprehensive principles
as the bed-rock basis of their action. They are not
infrequently of a semi-political character and exceed-
ingly liable to resort to the customary compromise
and chicanery of political life in order to secure the
ends they have in view. They are often composed
of heterogeneous elements consorting together for a
single given purpose, but agreeing in scarcely any-
thing beside. They may make great professions,
magnify the importance of their distinctive work
and would fain have us believe that the success of
their efforts will be the dawning or the full-risen
day of the millennium. Let no one be misled by
such representations or caused to think that their
way is the only or the chief way to regenerate
and transform humanity. Whoever trusts in them

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 417

for any great, comprehensive redemptive work, or
in their methods as the means of curing the mani-
fold ills of humanity and of establishing the reign
of brotherhood and peace on the earth, will be dis-
appointed ; and whoever expends his time, thought,
energy, strength exclusively upon them with the
expectation that by so doing he is rendering the
only or the most effectual service of God and man
possible, will sooner or later, in this or some com-
ing world, find that he was in serious error and
that much of his effort was spent to little purpose.
They are in their very nature unequal to so great
and sublime a work as Primitive Christianity pro-
poses to accomplish in the world, and their methods
are, in the ordinary course of human procedure and
under existing circumstances, equally limited and
inadequate. They all, I concede, have their uses,
do more or less good, help on in greater or less
degree the better time coming, fill a place in the
redemptive plan of the eternal providence of God.
But they have not that breadth of purpose, that
strength of principle, that weight of character, that
uncompromising spirit, that reliance upon moral
and spiritual agencies necessary to the accomplish-
ment of the proposed regeneration of the Christian
church and world.

5. Another reflection is suggested by the inquiry,
whether, after all, we ought not to put a higher
estimate than we have done upon the moral influ-
ence exerted by the church as a whole, through
the multiform denominations, sects, parties repre
sented therein, for the restoration of the original

418 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

morality of the Gospel and the ultimate triumph
of Primitive Christianity among men. Perhaps so,
but I do not see it. I see that all these religious
bodies, in co-operation with other beneficent agen-
cies alluded to, have important uses in the general
system of things, and, notwithstanding serious short-
comings and even trangressions against truth and
righteousness, are made under divine wisdom to
subserve most desirable ends. But viewed as direct
and all-sufficient means to the supreme object in
view, I deem them radically impotent and ineffectual.

In the first place they are each and all rendered
insensible of the necessity of any such profound,
vital transformation as this entire discussion in-
volves, by the spirit of undoubting self-satisfaction
with which they are possessed ; and this not only
paralyzes effort but utterly disqualifies them for
efficient service in its behalf. They already have,
in their own esteem, all essential Gospel truth, and
why should they trouble themselves with any call
or cause which implies that they have not; they
already maintain and represent, in their own opinion,
all the piety and virtue that is at present practi-
cable, and why should they devote time, energy,
effort, to attain anything different ? Why attempt
impossibilities ? Surely enough, why should they ?
Granting their premises, based upon their conceit,
and their conclusion is inevitable. So that on
that ground, nothing definite, positive, effectual is
to be hoped from them.

And then, again, the whole theological system
upon which the vast majority of these religious

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 419

morality of the Gospel and the ultimate triumph
of Primitive Christianity among men. Perhaps so,
but I do not see it. I see that all these religious
bodies, in co-operation with other beneficent agen-
cies alluded to, have important uses in the general
system of things, and, notwithstanding serious short-
comings and even trangressions against truth and
righteousness, are made under divine wisdom to
subserve most desirable ends. But viewed as direct
and all-sufficient means to the supreme object in
view, I deem them radically impotent and ineffectual.

In the first place they are each and all rendered
insensible of the necessity of any such profound,
vital transformation as this entire discussion in-
volves, by the spirit of undoubting self-satisfaction
with which they are possessed ; and this not only
paralyzes effort but utterly disqualifies them for
efficient service in its behalf. They already have,
in their own esteem, all essential Gospel truth, and
why should they trouble themselves with any call
or cause which implies that they have not; they
already maintain and represent, in their own opinion,
all the piety and virtue that is at present practi-
cable, and why should they devote time, energy,
effort, to attain anything different ? Why attempt
impossibilities ? Surely enough, why should they ?
Granting their premises, based upon their conceit,
and their conclusion is inevitable. So that on
that ground, nothing definite, positive, effectual is
to be hoped from them.

And then, again, the whole theological system
upon which the vast majority of these religious

420 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

dent superstructure of primitive Christian morality
as I have outlined and described it. But if the
divine economy of the dominant churches of Chris-
tendom be false, then my testimonies are sound,
trustworthy, and invulnerable. In either case, those
churches are obviously disqualified and incompetent
for the work of moral and religious reconstruction
for which I pray, labor, and suffer reproach.

And as to the more rational, liberal, humane sects,
whose theological doctrines and theories are more
accordant with what I propose, they are so few in
numbers and so limited in resources and influence
that they are but as small dust in the balance
when compared with the great mass of Christian
believers and with the manifold other denomina-
tions of Christendom. Moreover, they are more or
less affected by that feeling of self-complacency
and habit of self-adulation which checks energy
and restrains effort in the direction of radical
reform and reconstruction on a higher level than
that occupied by them; while their faith in, com-
plicity with, and subserviency to the political and
military systems and policies of the nations of the
earth, constitute a sort of background to their
entire denominational and religious life. For these
reasons little more reliance can be placed upon
them in their organic capacity for the proposed
transformation of the Christian world than upon
their more orthodox fellow-devotees.

6. A final reflection, of the gravest importance
it seems to me, arises as we draw this discussion
to a close, relating to the line of duty which should

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 421

be pursued by those honestly believing in and
thoroughly committed to the principles and ideas
proclaimed in these discourses, during the period
that must in the nature of the case intervene before
the work of actual reconstruction of the church can
be commenced. That period will necessarily be a
transitional one, characterized by the unsettling of
long-cherished theories and opinions, the breaking
up and discarding of old customs and methods of
administration, and the discussing, formulating, and
adopting of new ones suited to the more perfect
dispensation of the truth and grace that came by
Jesus Christ. It will be a period of considerable
length, continuing through scores of years, perhaps
centuries. For such radical and comprehensive-
reforms as that contemplated and prophesied are-
not accomplished in a moment. No sudden and
mighty upheaval can bring them to pass. They
can only be realized after long-protracted, patient,
earnest, thoughtful study, research, constructive
effort, and possibly repeated experimentation.

But what, I ask, are those of us who see the
importance of this reconstruction, and who are our-
selves we fain believe ready for it, to do mean-
while? We are few in numbers, and powerless, so
far as any outward, positive movement to realize
our ideal is concerned, against the vast multitudes
who are satisfied with what now is, or who, at
least, feel no necessity of conscience or of divine-
requirement laid upon them to strike out boldly
for anything radically different and more in accord
with the primitive type of church organization and

422 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

administration. I will endeavor to state from my
stand-point what we are to do what we can do
and what we can not or ought not do. We can
not be the unqualified, subservient, acquiescing
devotees of any existing denomination, sect, or
party in church or state; for the reason that they
are each and all more or less defective in respect
to the essentials of Primitive Christianity are
more or less involved in the practical denial
or open violation of those essentials. But some
are much less so than others, and at the same
time much less disposed to hold their members
to a stringent fealty to denominational, secta-
rian, or partisan views and methods much more
tolerant of individual convictions and scruples, and
much more willing to grant entire freedom of
thought and utterance, even to the extent of open
dissent, to those whom they welcome to their ranks
and fellowship. Some, indeed, are nominally com-
mitted to the idea of human progress, readily con-
fessing that there is more light to break forth from
the divine word, and regarding favorably whatever
is proclaimed or done in the name of reform and
for the bettering of the condition of mankind.
When association and co-operation with such can
be gained and maintained without compromising
principle or abandoning the cause of church recon-
struction, as I think may sometimes be the case,
it is well to take advantage of them. In so doing
one may have the opportunity of accomplishing
much good in directions and along lines opened
for the prosecution of moral, social, philanthropic,

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 423-

religious activities of various sort, and wholly unob-
jectionable, and also of testifying to and dissemi-
nating those higher truths and principles which
have been revealed to him, and so helping to pro-
mote the great object which he will ever keep in
-riew as the ultimate aim of all his endeavors and
desires.

Otherwise, if no such denomination, sect, or
party, can be found granting cordially this large
liberty and this unobjectionable privilege, then
complete independence should be assumed and main-
tained, whatever the present privations or incon-
veniences whatever misunderstanding, reproach,
or calumny may be incurred thereby. So Christ
himself did, and no one can go far astray who,
under similar circumstances, walks in the footsteps
of the great Exemplar. No true man or woman
receiving the doctrines taught in these discourses
and seeking to promote the sublime ends and aims
herein set forth, can afford to enter into any
entangling or compromising alliances whereby he
will be proven false to his own best convictions,
false to his acknowledged leader, and false to his
God, thus losing his self-respect, his moral power,
his very soul. Nor can one afford to hide his
light under a bushel or obscure it with mists and
clouds by submissive, unquestioning fellowship with
others in a confederation or society which sanc-
tions, consents to, or even tolerates- the falsities,,
abuses, and corruptions which have characterized
the ecclesiastical, social, and political life of Chris-
tendom for the past sixteen hundred years. To do-

424 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

so is treason to Christ and to the cause of human
regeneration. Nothing can be more ignoble than
to join a company or go with the multitude to do
evil, or to maintain any doctrine, custom, or insti-
tution known to be contrary to the truths and
requirements of Primitive Christianity. To do this
tnay be popular, may win the applause of the crowd,
may secure many worldly advantages, but it would
be basely wicked. By standing alone and independ-
ent for conscience's and principle's sake, we main-
tain a testimony which may not avail much in our
own day and generation, but which will tell in the
long run and with succeeding generations for the
advancement of the truth we cherish and the enfran-
chisement and sanctification of the world. It may
be impossible for us just now to convert others to
our high and sacred standard of duty, or even to
induce any considerable number to hear or read
and consider our reasons for the faith that is in
us; but one thing we can do, God helping us, and
that is maintain our own individual integrity. If
the world turn a deaf ear to our testimonies and
appeals; if it sneer at, or curse, or persecute us,
let us trust in God and defy all threatened evil
consequences. Pursuing this course we do the best
thing that can be done, under the circumstances,
to arrest the attention of noble-minded men and
women striving to serve God and save humanity,
to commend our distinctive views of truth and duty
to pure, generous, Christlike souls, and so to pre-
pare the way for the coming of a regenerate church
and of the divine kingdom to the world. Thus dis-

AND ITS CORRUPTIONS. 425

charging our whole duty, as we see our duty, we
shall satisfy our own consciences and find acceptance
with Him who judgeth righteously ; and our labors,
humble though they be and counted of little worth
by the wise and prudent of this world, shall, under
the sheltering care of the eternal providence, be
made to contribute their appropriate share to the
.grand consummation.

With these reflections, which constitute the larger
part of the present discourse, I close this, the
second volume of my general Exposition of Primi-
tive Christianity and its Corruptions during the
successive periods that have transpired since Jesus
of Nazareth went about preaching the Gospel of a
better life to the children of men. Whosoever will
profit by what I have said, let him profit ; and who-
soever will deride and scorn it, let him do so at
his own risk of loss and condemnation setting
forth and making evident, if he can, a more excel-
lent way for the attainment of the transcendent
.object in view, the inauguration of that long-prayed-
for era when u God's kingdom shall have come and
His will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In
His own time, I have no doubt, will the infinite
Father, in whose name and under whose inspiration
I have spoken, vindicate my testimonies and make
them effectual by His unfailing wisdom for the
advancement of the cause of truth in the world
and the furtherance of His infinite purpose of good
concerning the children of men. And so, while to
me is given the honor and the reward of the ser-
vice I render, to Him, for all the beneficent results

426 PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY

accomplished and for the victory finally won, shall
be the glory forever.

In my third and last volume of this series I pro-
pose to declare, expound, and defend the distinctive
Ecclesiastical Polity and Social Order inculcated*
and enjoined by pure Primitive Christianity